A New Commander, A New Game, Ambitious Objectives
by Masin
Summary: A massive crossover featuring elements from numerous movies, games, and TV Shows! A person from our universe gets wondrous piece of technology capable of allowing him to travel to other universes. With this gift he will do the only logical thing, build an Empire. 1st person POV and later other POVs. My first story. Rated M for language, violence, and maybe lemons much later.
1. Look at What I Found

**Okay folks, here is the first chapter; it starts out a bit slow so bare with it.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, suing me is not worth the court costs**

**Chapter 1 – Look at What I Found**

Ah Wyoming, such a nice and peaceful state; lowest population in the country despite being a fairly large state and being in the mid-west with parts of the Rocky Mountains made this state a perfect place to go to get away from most of civilization and have myself a nice vacation and do some mountain hiking. Why do I want to do this you ask? Because, the last few years of my life have, for lack of a better word, sucked. It all started shortly after my contract in the Army Reserves ended, after six years I was done and opted for college, got in no problem and even got a nice girlfriend my second week, things were going well. Then my grandmother died, it was sad but no surprise, after all she was in her 90s, still it hurt after all she was my only grandparent that I actually met, all the others died before I was born. Now an elderly family member dyeing from old age may not seem like a life crippling even experience, no, what was really devastating was while I was at the funeral there was a campus shooting literally on the same day and the only fatalities, besides the shooter, where two of my good friends and my girlfriend. After nearly six months together the first really serious relationship I had was so violently taken from me, I couldn't believe it, we were so close and everyone we knew called us the most lovey-dovey couple on campus, heck we were even leasing an off campus apartment together, we did everything together, and now she was gone.

After her funeral I hit a rut, regressed back to my before-army-days; I didn't start drinking or doing drugs no, instead I just stopped caring about anything except what entertained me, mainly sci-fi/fantasy stuff; games, movies, TV shows and the like. You see I have been and always were a geek; I was just a more sociably adaptable geek, hence when I enlisted in the army. Anyways, my grades dropped as I lost interest, went from straight A's to C's and D's, and I stopped seeing my remaining friends. I eventually managed to squeak out a two year associates degree when I graduated and moved back home to Michigan to live with my mother, who promptly ended my rut with her stern *ehem* vocal encouragement the way only a mother can. With that taken care of I started returning to my better self and soon got a fairly good tech job and even met a nice girl who I thought about asking out, things were looking up. I should have known better; within four months my mother was killed in a traffic accident. Just as I was getting my life back this happens, it felt as though everyone I loved was being taken away from me, with my mother gone I now had no immediate family left. That woman had raised me by herself, now she was gone; after her funeral I had no idea what to do or think, I just sat in our… my house, partially numb trying to figure out what I now wanted.

Within a few days I was notified that my mother had a large life insurance policy and that I was the sole recipient, something that I was totally surprise by, I had no idea that she had life insurance. When all was said and done, all debts and bills paid I ended up with slightly less than half a million, which was a very nice amount for me. As I thought about how much my mother had left me I had an epiphany, of sorts; I had nothing keeping me here aside from a job that was starting to get tedious, no friends or family and I wasn't nostalgic enough to care about a house we had only had for four years, it wasn't even a nice house. I had money and nothing holding me back as well as a desperate want for something new, so I promptly quit my job, packed up most everything I owned except for my laptop, clothes, and a few other personnel effects, and placed it all in a very long term storage unit, placed the house up for sale and loaded up my truck. My first stop was to see a few cousins to inform them of my extended leave, but after that I set out for the least populous state in America, Wyoming, my objective, the Rockies and some peace 'n quiet to help me figure out the next step in my life. Following a two and a-half day drive I found myself in Casper, Wyoming, which according to the maps I consulted, is one of the more populated places in the state. Once there I booked a room in a nice hotel and planned where I wanted to go and what I was going to do. I ultimately settled on a hiking trip, as to where, well I picked the area around Gannett Peak. With that determined course of action I bought some camping gear and supplies and headed out, and now here I am.

-OoO-

'I can't believe I'm doing this.' I thought to myself for the umpteenth time. I have been here for two days now, it's not like I am having a horrible time, far from it; the weather's nice, it's peaceful, and my time in the army taught me some useful things like land navigation, how to endure long walks on lousy terrain while carrying lots of gear, eating crappy food, and getting comfortable enough to sleep anywhere to name just a few. Still, this is the first true camping experience of my life and for someone like me who by the way despite being a US Army veteran, was never deployed, no instead I am a 26 year old, 5'10" Caucasian male geek who normally tries to avoid work and here I am in the wilderness. But, this is what I came out here for, to get away, and it's not like I am suffering out here, I have all the gear I need and plenty of supplies and actually practiced how to put up the tent and how to use everything I bought before I came out here, I'm not stupid after all. Still, it's a work out.

"Oh well, 'embrace the suck.'" It was definitely a phrase I was relearning, oh and my name is Masin by the way (A/N No that is not a typo, that is how I am spelling it and there is not a last name… yet). As noon of my third day slowly passed I was wandering around trying to find a way up the side of this ridiculously steep hill I found myself up against. I was at the base of it despite being several hundred feet up already and there were large boulder like rock walls everywhere providing me no passage to continue my upwards trek. As I was about to say, "fuck it" I noticed an opening mostly covered in vegetation on one of the largest boulder rocks, it was honestly a miracle that I saw it. Walking over to it and clearing away some of the brush I took out my flashlight and shined it in and discerned that it was a deep yet narrow cave, with curiosity over taking my better judgment I took out the forehead light I had bought and putting it on I headed in. The cave was fairly straight and fairly deep and after about five minutes had widened out comfortably, eventually the cave led to a nice sized cavern with a small opening at the top where light shown threw and a little waterfall spilled in and made a small stream that flowed into the cavern wall and continued on through its own little tunnel. As I entered I let my eyes scan the cavern walls, light on my forehead better illuminating what I saw; there wasn't anything actually interesting in this place just bare walls and a sandy floor and if it weren't for the stream it would be totally plain. My eyes continued to look around and began tracing the waterfall and then the stream and as I was doing that my light reflected of something shiny on the water's edge. Again curious I walked over to inspect it and saw what looked like a metallic corner of something, so I reached down and started to dig it up and was quickly able to pull up the mud covered thing. Taking it over to the waterfall I washed it off and held it up to the hole in the cavern roof and discovered it was a metallic cube. It was about the size of a gallon of milk, though a bit lighter in weight; it also had a strange circular indentation on all sides, in fact all the sides were the same. A circular indentation that almost reached the edges of the face and sank down to become a flat circular face about the diameter of a one liter pop bottle, the cube was a bright white while the indent was black until it hit the center face which was also white but with a bright red ring for a border and finally a black ring in the center about the diameter of a half-dollar, the thing looked advanced and neat looking but…

"What the hell it this thing?" As if in response to my question a bluish-white light fanned out from the side if the cube that was facing me and swept up and down startling me into dropping the thing and backing away. Before I could do anything else a synthetic voice said.

"_**Scan complete, base-line human confirmed, no cybernetic implants detected, playing recording."**_ Just then from the cube's top facing side a very realistic two foot tall hologram of an elderly man in what could be described as a futuristic scientist outfit complete with lab coat appeared, he looked calm and poised but also tired and a bit distressed like he was short on time. One other note of interest was the obvious cybernetics coming from the back of his head.

"Greetings," he began, "my name is Doctor Mathew Harris former lead scientist of the United Earth Federation's Armored Combat Unit research & development organization. Ever since the end of the Infinite war sixteen years ago I have worked tirelessly to create a hybrid ACU to incorporate the technologies of the three factions of humanity; the UEF, the Aeon Illuminate, and the Cybran Nation in an attempt to further unite the three and cast aside the old grudges. For this I have been relieved of my position in the UEF's scientific community and forced to continue elsewhere. I was eventually able to collect like-minded individuals from all three factions and with their help obtain the resources necessary to build a facility on a remote world to commence my work and after years of painstaking effort I managed to gather the technology and various unit designs from the three factions and with them created the most advanced ACU ever conceived. But alas, it seems that I was too late, fore as I speak radicals from the UEF's military are attacking this facility in an attempt to capture and use the hybrid ACU to restart the war, this cannot be allowed to happen, fortunately using the collected technology and Quantum gate tech I have developed a device that allows its user to travel to other realities, other universes, and that device is installed in the ACU, and I am going to use it to deny these warmongers their prize. You may ask why do I not use the ACU, and the answer is currently in your possession, what you have is called the 'Command & Control Cube', and without it the this ACU cannot be utilized because it contains a specially made AI essential for operating all of the functions of the hybrid, and at the time of this recording the AI is not full stabilized, and won't be in time. So I shall use the new 'Quantum Shifter' to send both away to a randomly selected universe, the only prerequisite is that it will be on Earth and there will be humans, however I am sending them separate and because the cube shall arrive separate from the ACU, the ACU will remain in mid transit until it receives a signal from the cube." He stops and looks to his left, "I am running out of time, please, take good care of that AI, she will be newly formed and in need of guidance in order to develop a personality of her own. Do not worry about what I said about her not being fully stabilized, because this message will not play unless she is, right now she sleeps, but will awaken when you register as this ACU's commander. That is all I have time to say, the AI will explain anything else you might want to know, thank you and good bye." With that Dr. Harris turned off the recording and the hologram faded, in its place the center black ring was blinking a soft blue light. I just stared at it for a few minutes, not really able to believe the enormity for what I have found. Finally I ended up finding my brain and my voice as I blurted out…

"This cannot be fucking real!" Indeed, I could not really believe it, and for good reason. 'UEF', 'Aeon Illuminate', 'Cybran Nation', 'ACU', 'Infinite War', 'AI', 'Quantum Shifter'. Most of those names I have not heard since the last time I played the game "Supreme Commander". Could this thing really be from that universe? Impossible! But hear it was, sitting right in front of me with its blinking blue light just asking me to touch it and become the proud owner of an Armored Combat Unit. Should I?

"Oh what the hell, I wanted something new right?" I picked up the cube, looked once more at the blinking light, and pressed my thumb to it. What I felt, was not a pricking sensation, but I defiantly felt something sharp. The cube then gave a soft chime and in the same voice as before said…

"_**Registration complete, activating AI."**_ The entire indent then lit up and a new lesser quality hologram appeared showing a beautiful young woman. She had an angelic face, that while kind looking, lacked emotion, her hair was long but tied back and out of the way, she was also in a simple knee length dress which hugged her body enticingly yet was modest, and while more details could be made out, they were lessened by the fact that she was composed of white light, meaning there were no colors discernable so I had no idea what color her eyes, hair, or dress was. She looked up at me with those emotionless eyes, though for a split second I thought I saw something in them, probably a trick of the light. After a moment she made a respectable bow and for the first time ever, spoke.

"Greetings, it is a pleasure to meet you master." Her voice was soft yet also emotionless just like her eyes.

"Yeah, it is also a pleasure to meet you as well um… what is your name?" She looked up at me again and gently shook her head as she answered.

"I do not have a name master; however my designation is Alpha-1-1-6-3." I blinked at hearing that, it was probably my job to name her *sigh*, I am so bad at coming up with names.

"Okay ah, do you want one?"

"If you wish to name me then I will of course accept master." She looked at me expectantly, oh yeah, she wants a name.

"Do you have any preferences?" She shakes her head again, figures. "Alright I'll give it some thought, but it might take me some time, you okay with waiting a bit?" She nodded and actually had a bit of a pleased look on her face.

"Of course master." With that settled I rubbed the back of my neck and head as I tried to think of what else to say. Just what do you talk to an AI about anyway?

"Now what should I do?" I said that more to myself than her but she responded anyway.

"Master, would you like me to activate the cubes signal and bring the ACU here?" My attention snapped back to her at that and promptly shook my head which garnered an ever so slightly confused look from her.

"No, that would be a bad idea right now; first of all we are in a cavern, second we are in a mountainous area, and finally once you do signal it we'll have a very short amount of time to leave before unwanted people show up and I have no idea how to hide a multi-story war machine, so until I learn more about the ACU it is going to stay right where it is." She acknowledged this with another gentle nod.

"Understood master, shall I start debriefing you on the ACU functions and capabilities now?" She asked expectantly.

"No, not now, I should wait until I get back to civilization before I start my homework." It was meant to be a joke to myself but I think I saw a little tug on the corner or her mouth looks like she is already starting to develop.

"Very well master, I will await your command."

"Alright then, it will take a few days before I arrive back at civilization, after all it took me three days of hiking to get here so expect that same amount of time getting back."

"Shall I enter stand-by mode until you are ready master?" I gave her a bit of a quizzical look when she said 'stand-by mode'.

"Will you notice the flow of time while like that?"

"No master." She answered simply.

"Then do it, we'll talk again when I get back to town." With a final bow her hologram vanished and the cube went inactive, I put it in my pack and with a final look around the cavern turned to leave wondering if I did the right thing in accepting the cube.

-OoO-

It was a three day hike from my truck to where I found that cube, but I took my time and was doing a lot of sight-seeing along the way. The way back only took two days since I was moving with a purpose and didn't stop to look around. During those two days my mind was a buzz of activity about what I had found, I was now the owner of what was beyond a doubt the most technologically advance and most powerful war machine on the planet bar none. On top of that was that it came with an actual AI, one that acknowledged me as its, no, _her_ master. That last bit was both thrilling and somewhat dangerous; I needed to be sure that she doesn't ever decide to rebel and kill or betray me because she gets tired of being a servant, but that's for later, I figure I've got sometime before that happens and if I play my cards right, it won't.

As for right now, I was so fucking excited; because not only do I have my own giant robot mech, but said giant robot mech has the capability to build an army, imagine that, me, with an army, an army of fearless and expendable robots, I could build an empire; I paused, an empire of… robots. I grimaced at that thought, the empire part I like, the robot part, not so much. I needed a plan to use what I have just acquired and forge an empire that wasn't totally mechanical; I thought about it during the entire two day hike to my vehicle and by the time I got there I had the beginnings of a plan put together. I would need to go to a few other game universes to gather certain pieces of technology first, one of those pieces being starships, because I don't think the universe of supreme commander had starships and if I am going to forge a powerful and advanced empire I am going to need a powerful Starfleet. With that decided I got into my truck and set off to the nearest city, Dubois, which though was small with less than twenty thousand people, was still a modest size, and it was close by.

When I arrived I immediately got a hotel room and took my first shower in over five days which felt great after all the hiking I did. While I was doing that I was also contemplating the name I was going to give to the cubes AI, what the hell was I going to call her, the AI of a cube that I found in an underground cavern, how did it even get there? I suppose it could have fallen down the same hole that the water was falling through, after all it was in the stream; I laughed, falling down a hole, kind of like… I grinned; I knew what I was going to name my little white AI. After figuring that out, I sat on the hotel's bed and put the cube in front of me and addressed it.

"AI, can you hear me?" After a few seconds the indent lit up and the hologram of the little woman returned.

"Yes master, are you ready for me to debrief you now?" I sighed and shook my head earning me a slight frown from her.

"No, not yet, first I thought I should name you first." That actually got me a smile, good looks like this was an appropriate first step in preventing a murderous AI.

"I thought about it a lot these past couple of days and decided on the name, Alice. How does that sound?" I noticed her mouth the name before ever so slightly smiling again.

"Thank you master, I think this is a very nice name." Once again I grinned.

"Well, then it's very nice to meet you Alice, my name is Masin." She looked at me funny, but then bowed like when we first met in the cavern and replied.

"It is also very nice to meet you as well master." I quirked an eyebrow at that.

"Um, Alice you're welcome to use my name if want to, you don't have to call me master." She tilted her head slightly.

"Is that an order master?"

"No, that would defeat the point of giving you the option." I deadpanned.

"Very well then master." I just stared at her for a moment before saying.

"You're not going to use my name are you?" She replied to me in an almost sing-song voice.

"I will if you order me to." I face palmed.

"Again, that's against the point." I was pretty sure that she was messing with me, which was technically a good thing because it meant her personality was developing; I just hoped that she learned moderation when it came to jokes and pranks. But anyway, it seemed that I wasn't getting anywhere with this current line of conversation and decided to turn it towards a more productive one. "Well whatever, let's just start the debriefing or whatever it is, I'm really curious about this Hybrid ACU." That seemed to be more than agreeable to her as she promptly responded.

"Right away master." She then launched into a long and technical explanation about the ACU, mostly development history and a list of abilities that definitely made it more advanced than regular ACUs; it seemed to be based off of the first supreme commander game rather than the second one. She was speaking quite fast and it was hard to keep up so as she was beginning to explain the abilities in detail I interrupted her with an idea.

"Wait, hold on a second you're going to fast, um, say can you interface with my laptop and use it like a monitor?" She cocked an eyebrow at this and 'looked' towards my laptop were it lay on the bed next to the cube.

"It might be possible master, one moment." Her face took on a more concentrated look and her hologram brightened a bit before the laptop screen flickered to life and what look like user friendly technical specs appeared. "It seems I am able to do as you ask master, though this device is extremely primitive when compared to myself it seems to be capable of serving this simple purpose." I couldn't tell if she was being smug or proud, nor if she was doing it on purpose or not, so I chose to ignore it and focused on the screen instead.

"Well, okay then let's see what we've got here…" I took a look at the ACU's specs and noticed that there were already installed upgrades from all three factions as well as weapons from the three, there were also more upgrades than were allowed in game. "… I thought that each slot could only have one upgrade at a time?" Alice addressed that question immediately.

"You would be correct master, however what you are looking at are not upgrades but are standard features, actual upgrades will come later as you develop them." I was shocked, aside from the weapons and the Quantum Shifter which appeared to be installed on the back, there were numerous attachments that were considered upgrades in the game, yet they were already preinstalled here and actually look like they were designed to be standard.

"Wait, so you're saying that everything on this list is already preinstalled?" A nod. "How can this thing power all of these devices?" It was a valid question, after all the Quantum Shifter alone would need massive amounts of power.

"Well first of all master this ACU has a hybrid power core thus making it more powerful than normal add to that the fact that not all of these devices will or can be used simultaneously, also that several devises, for example the Quantum Shifter, utilize power capacitors which must first store up the needed amount of power before activating. There are also several power storage units onboard that while not as large as regular units, do allow for spare energy." That made more sense, so chargeable capacitors, smart, but it also means…

"Wouldn't that mean that the devices with capacitors require lots of time in-between uses?"

"Correct master, the Quantum Shifter for example would take over a day to recharge after each use, and that is only if the ACU's power core dedicates all of its energy to it, which it most likely won't so it will actually take longer, however, if you were to construct other external power generators and link the ACU to them, then you could cut down on the recharge time immensely." That again made sense; so going over what this ACU had there was of course the Quantum Shifter as well as; a teleporter, shield and cloaking generators, resource allocation system, tech two engineering suite, advanced cooling and heat sink augmentations, damage stabilization system, chrysalis beam augmentation, microwave laser generator, tactical missile launcher, and heavy anti-matter cannon. Holy shit, this thing is really over powered; I love it, and all of these devises are hybrid tech, meaning they are no doubt better than the originals, damn that doctor was awesome, too bad he's probably dead.

"You mentioned something about developing upgrades, what did you mean by that?" I hope it means what I think it means.

"Well master a normal ACU stores all of its available templates in synthetic DNA memory banks, however this ACU utilizes the newly developed Quantum memory banks which has a near infinite data storage capacity and with me your AI to assist you, you are able to use all three tech trees and either use preexisting units or combine them to create more advanced new units and structures, this is also one of the reasons an AI was created for this ACU." A near insane grin momentarily appeared on my face as I realized that my goals of collecting and combining other universes technology was possible. However there was still one other little thing of concern.

"Alice, how am I going to learn how to pilot the ACU, there also doesn't appear to be much information listed here, all it says it something about a 'neural interface', how does that work?" I ask that, but I think I have an idea. To answer my question, a small black rectangular piece of metal ejects from the side of the cube.

"Here you are master, please place this on the base of the back of your neck and you will be able to use the ACU's neural interface." I picked up and examined the piece of metal, it was small, no bigger than a penny, just rectangular, it was also featureless, no discerning marks. Figuring that it couldn't hurt and that it would be neat to have a neural link to a giant robot I did as instructed. What followed, was just plane creepy feeling; as soon as it touched me I felt a cool liquid feeling spread out from the back of my neck up over my head and stopping at my eyes as well as spreading down my spine, it only took a few seconds but it made my skin crawl. When it ended I touched the corner of my eye and felt raised ridges that extended past my temples. Startled I jumped up and raced to the bathroom to get a look at myself in the mirror; what I saw was both cool and unnerving. A retained habit from my army days kept my hair short, it's not regulation anymore but it still allowed me to see the lines and cybernetic like ridges that now decorated my scalp. Starting from the base of my neck and extending over my head and stopping before it got to my forehead at my hair line were the ridges, on the sides they continued over my temples to my eyes and stopped at the corners. Taking off my shirt I saw that the ridges also went down three quarters of my spine and actually traced a rough outline of my spine. As I took this all in I barely kept from freaking out, after a few moments I steadily walked back out to the bed and showing Alice my new skin work, I asked in a deceptively calm voice…

"Alice, what the fuck is all this?" Alice seemed very pleased with what she saw.

"That master is the bio-metallic ACU neural interface system, again a hybrid tech that allows you the commander various levels of mental interface so long as you are present in the ACU's cockpit." I sighed; I am going to need a hat, oh well.

"Well at least it's useful. You mentioned using you to create new units, and what about the Quantum Shifter, how do I select universes to travel to?" I wanted to get to work and get my new unit queue put together as well as learn how to use the Shifter.

"Using the Quantum Shifter is fairly straight forward master; the cube is the main control computer and I the AI am the one who manages all its functions as well as assists you in finding your desired universal destination. The actual Shifter itself is installed on the ACU but requires the cube to be locked in its control interface port located in the ACU's cockpit in order to be utilized. As for making new units, well we work together to make the designs and then I input them into the ACU's proto-crafter."

"Well that seems simple enough… alright let's get started." Over the next couple of days I worked with Alice to create my new units and structures which turned out to be quite fun really, with Alice's help it was simple, just describe what I wanted and she used the available tech to make it happen. There were something's I couldn't do, like make spaceships, turns out I was right about that, she had nothing on making starships despite the level of technology she had access to, but I had planned for this. As for finding the next universe that took some time, but a few internet references and she not only got my next destination, but also several following ones. When we were finished, I had several new unit designs including some T4 level units, and my next destination planned. So I packed up, checked out of the hotel and set off to a location far away from anyone.

It took about four hours to find a suitable location to signal the ACU, but when I did I immediately brought out Alice.

"Okay Alice, activate the signal." Her hologram appeared, and with an excited look to her the nodded swiftly.

"Right away master." She glowed brighter for a moment and then in a soundless two second electrical storm of black and purple lightning the huge Armored Combat Unit appeared. It look very impressive and you could tell it was a hybrid design; it had the sturdy looking build of a UEF ACU, the advanced cybernetic lines of the Cybrans, and the stream lined organic beauty of the Aeons, the head look like the head of Gypsy Danger from the movie pacific rim, and it had what could be mistaken for a power pack of some kind on its back, it also had actual hands as well as arm weapons. Its primary color was white with a bright red outline along with black cybernetic looking veins in between the armor plates at the joints.

"Not my first choice of color scheme, but okay, um Alice, how do I get in?" There was no obvious latter and this thing was damn huge. Alice just looked at me amused and following a wave of disorientation I found myself sitting in a surprisingly comfortable chair looking at several large screens showing the surrounding area, Alice's cube was on a special perch on my left, her hologram was looking slightly mischievous as she spoke.

"Just like that master, to enter and exit the ACU a specially dedicated teleporter is used." That was convenient.

"Okay so this thing can teleport other objects around then?" Alice shook her head at this.

"No master, this teleporter can only move one human sized object between the ACU and a very nearby destination."

"Alright then, but what about my stuff?" I didn't want to leave behind everything I owned.

"Your personal effects have been moved to the storage unit under the cockpit master, unfortunately your vehicle cannot be teleported or stored." Well that's fine, I won't be needing my truck anymore, just one other thing now…

"Very well then, now how do I pilot this thing, there aren't very many controls, just some adjustable keyboards?" It was true, just keyboards, not even a joystick.

"That is the job of the neural interface master; it works on a combination of thought, desire, and willpower. Just relax and focus on what you want, it is always active." Well that sounds easy enough, so I sat back in the chair and concentrated on my desire to pilot the ACU. I then suddenly found my perspective changed, at first I thought I was looking at a zoomed in screen, but then I looked down and saw the robotic body of the ACU. I _was_ the ACU, I looked around and gazed at my surroundings, amazed at my new stature, I raised my hands and saw the ACU's hand, flexing the fingers I was astounded at the level of control I had. Seconds later a HUD appeared in my vision and Alice's voice sounded in my head.

"Master what you are experiencing is the primary piloting view point used mainly for combat, in this level you use the ACU as though you were it and fight using its weapons as well as directing the battlefield, however you cannot use the ACU's build function like this, only command other units to build. The various indicators on your HUD are; energy and mass availability, ACU integrity, area map overview, building options, available units, shield and cloak status, weapon status, and teleporter and Quantum Shifter status." As she listed each indicator the item was highlighted, after that I mentally accessed my weapons list and selected the left arm's plasma cannon, when I did that a targeting sight appeared and moved as I moved the arm. I placed the sight over my truck which the computer must have recognized as my target because it highlighted it as red when I had it centered, after a silent good bye, I mentally pulled the trigger and the cannon fired. Now in retrospect using a plasma cannon on a truck was probably overkill, but it definitely worked, because there was nothing left but a flaming crater. After that I slowly retracted my consciousness to the secondary interface level which was like zooming out from a screen, I found that I could still utilize various options on the HUD but not weapons, in exchange though I could now build stuff, and I could still do it all by thought. I then noticed the status of the Quantum Shifter, it was full charged.

"Alice, have you imputed to coordinates for the first universe?"

"Yes master, I only wait for you order." I smiled, I could hear her eagerness.

"Then activate the device, it is time to complete our first mission objective." Alice smirked.

"Yes commander, activating Quantum Shifter, shifting in 5…4…3…2…1." I grinned, that was the first time she ever addressed me as anything besides 'master'.

"Next stop… Tiberian Sun." In a storm of black and purple lightning, we vanished, and path to power began.

-OoO-

Chapter End

A/N: Well there you have it folks, the first chapter of my first story ever, I'm still a new at writing so the chapters are going to be at about this length until I get used to it, so please be patient with me.

Read & Review Thank You.


	2. Operation: Tiberian Dawn

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, suing me is not worth the court costs.**

**Chapter 2 – Operation: Tiberian Dawn**

The trip to another universe was… different than what I was expecting, and much quicker. Indeed it took only a few seconds of back and purple lightning covering the viewing screens before I found myself looking out into a fairly alien looking world. It was mountainous, lifeless, and there were green, yellow, and blue crystal patches all over the place, hell even the sky looked different, or more accurately, sickly.

"Alice?" I asked taking my eyes away from the strange view, and also so I could verify that she was still there.

"Yes master?" She replied, much to my relief.

"Where the hell are we? We are on Earth right?" We should be, and if those crystals are what I think they are then we are in the correct universe.

"We should be master" She answered as her hologram began to flicker slightly and the brightness waxed and waned, a sign that I had learned meant she was processing large amounts of data. "The Quantum Shifter performed well within expected parameters."

"Well is there any way you can verify?" I really needed some answers.

"I should be able to master, I just need…" She trailed off as she began working a bit harder to find the answers to my quandaries. Finally she let out a tone of success as she looked at me. "Master I have detected several satellites in low orbit and with your permission; I would like to access them as they would no doubt be able to answer the question of our whereabouts."

"Can you get in without being detected?" She looked almost smug as she replied.

"Easily master, the encryption is laughable and the satellites very primitive." I sighed as I said.

"Alright, do it." Her hologram flickered once before immediately exclaiming.

"Done! Now, let's see what we got… hmm seems to be civilian satellites as well as GPS satellites; I've just accessed this world's internet and according to what I've read this is definitely the universe you want." I smiled at that, so that means those are Tiberium crystals then, I am now in the universe of Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, perfect.

"Excellent, so were on Earth are we then?"

"According to the GPS satellites master, the Peruvian Yellow Zone, just north of Nevado Auzangate and a good hundred miles northeast of the former city of Cusco." Okay that's interesting but still.

"A Yellow Zone makes sense since there is Tiberium everywhere but no red Tiberium, however what's Nevado Auzangate and what did you mean 'former city'?"

"Well master, Nevado Auzangate is a mountain, the reason I said 'former city' was because Cusco was the site of a major battle in the first Tiberium War and ended up so infested with Tiberium that it became uninhabitable." So were post TW1 eh?

"What are the other South American zones?"

"According to my information master, the South American zones include; the Peruvian, Bolivian, Guyana, Paraguay, and Brazilian Yellow Zones, though only the northwest portion of Brazil is a Yellow Zone and the rest is a Red Zone; the Blue Zones are composed of Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina, the rest of the continent is a Red Zone." Sounds like the Tiberium spread started in the Amazon.

"Any info on the current state of affairs?" She smirked at me.

"Plenty master; first off it may interest you to know that the Second Tiberium War is in full swing, in fact it seems that the GDI have been making pushes to capture Yellow Zones all over the world including here; the GDI have been massing forces all over around the border areas in order to push into the Bolivian Zone and take the city of La Paz from the Brotherhood of Nod, there have been skirmishes all around lake Titicaca, and before you ask master; no, there have been no mention of the Scrin or anything else alien." So it's TW2 right now eh? Well I guess that means none of the later tech or units from the newer games then, what a shame, but in truth I don't need any of that, all the stuff I actually want can be acquired here and now and then upgraded with the more advanced tech contained within Alice's data banks. With that settled I moved on to my next subject of interest.

"Alice I am a little concerned with how Tiberium will affect the presents of mass deposits, can you do a scan of the area and see if there are any?" It was undeniably one of my more dire concerns, due to the fact that Tiberium crystals grow by sucking up the various ores and minerals found in the Earth's crust there was a lingering fear that any mass deposits were used up by the growing crystals, and without any knowledge on Tiberium there would be no means for me to acquire usable mass except possibly through mass reclamation by salvaging the remains of abandoned towns and cities.

"Actually master I have already scanned the surrounding area and there are in fact numerous mass deposits, they are however deeper underground than normal, most likely due to Tiberium crystal growth as you say." Phew, that's a load of my mind, though if I think about it the crystals aren't that big so it stands to reason that they can only pull up raw material from so far down. Now with that concern alleviated it was time to begin the operation.

"Alright Alice where do you suggest we setup shop then?" Alice smiled and then gestured the view screens and a larger map fill the display with the ACU's location and another a little ways away highlighted.

"This area master has the highest amount of mass deposits within scanner range that is also a suitable location for constructing an adequate sized base." Looking at it I definitely saw that it was a good area, nice and snug next to a mountain range without being too cramped, just enough to be defensible.

"How far away is it?"

"About ten miles to the southeast master." Fairly close by; I was about to start piloting the ACU there when I noticed one of the status indicators on my HUD, I smirked as I gave an order.

"Alice, teleport us there please." She too smiled before nodding.

"At once master." After a second of a fleeting sense of disorientation the scene outside changed and we were at our new 'campsite'.

"Alice please highlight the mass deposit locations for me." With a tilt of her head the HUD was now populated with the symbols for mass deposits; okay, time to get to work.

The first thing I did was mentally open the ACU's building queue and select the mass extractor and then indicated the one of the closer mass deposits, also mentally, then mentally confirmed the command build. I was only able to construct things because I was in the secondary interface mode, or build-mode, of the ACU. If I was in the primary interface mode, or combat-mode, then I couldn't build but I could pilot the ACU as if I was the ACU and utilize its weapons, the modes were pretty self-explanatory.

As I watched the ACU build I was amazed at what I was seeing, it was different then the game, it looked like several bluish white beams of energy were sort of drawing the structure into existence, I could not even begin to fathom the science behind it; I guess that's 40th century technology for you, really advanced despite their lack of starships, I blame the Quantum gates. Anyway, it took about five minutes to complete the extractor and another few minutes before I noticed my mass expenditure begin to replenish, Alice said the delay was due to the depth of the deposit. I ended up building two more extractors before constructing a power generator followed by a quartet of mass storage units and then waiting about a half-hour before deciding to build my first land factory.

Watching the factory forming lead me to admire the new hybrid architecture that me and Alice had worked out; taking the solid build of the UEF with the mechanical efficiency of the Cybrans and the lethal beauty of the Aeons I got a style and function that was strong, efficient, and eye pleasing that was also technologically advanced looking, which was mainly thanks to the Aeons aesthetics, I really liked their curved plate pieces and floating parts, the UEF influence made it look more solid while the Cybran influence gave it a more techy feel; all the buildings and units I designed had this look to them resulting in true hybrid architecture and aesthetics.

Once the land factory was finished I order it to build a couple of hybrid engineering bots and immediately put them to work on constructing more of the base which included more mass extractor, mass and energy storage units, and power generators. The HEBs were my new standard builders and repairers; they were hover bots able to zip and zoom around fairly quickly and were even given a cloaking ability which they could use when idle. With the HEBs set to work I then queued up units from a new series of units that I devised, which I dubbed the probe series.

The first probe was the scout probe; fast, spherical, and capable of low altitude flight they are loaded with the most advanced sensors and scanners that Alice was able to come up with, giving the uncreatively named 'scouter' unprecedented exploration and mapping capacity. The scouter is also equipped with stealth and cloaking capabilities allowing it to remain undetectable to all known forms of sensors, radars, and even eye site. It's also able to place beacons and/or markers on buildings and object and can even act as a spotter for artillery. While it has no weapons or combat worthy armor the scouters cloaking feature ensures it is never in a situation that requires any; however as a last resort, the probe is able to overload and detonate its power core creating an explosion that while not to effective against mechanize enemies, can be devastating to infantry.

Next in the series is the Intel probe; very similar to the scout probe the Intel probe sacrifices advanced sensors for an advanced hacking system allowing it to enter enemy structures, access terminals, and transmit all relevant data as well as work with other probes to completely capture enemy facilities. The Intel probe is equipped with cloaking ability but instead of stealth systems has stealth plating, something I had Alice develop to give certain units protection against enemy radar and sensors without needing specialized electronics which require extra power to function, however the drawback to stealth plating is the it replaces a units armor with something that is not suitable for battle, this means that most units won't be able to feature stealth plating unless they are strong enough to carry the extra weight of having more plating on them. Another feature of the Intel probe is its focused scanner suite allowing for in-depth analysis of objects of interest, and as a final note the probe has no weapons and is unable to maintain its cloak while hacking or scanning.

The final probe in the series is the Assassin probe; nicknamed 'slayer' it to is similar to the scout probe, however it is easily twice as large and armed with a single anti-infantry pulse laser, equipped with both a shield and cloak, as well as thicker stealth plating for armor that is angled allowing the armor to deflect ballistic weapons fire instead of outright blocking it and has only a marginal defense against energy weapons; neither the shield, cloak, or its weapon can be use at the same time due to power constraints, instead the shield is meant to 'pop' into place when it senses incoming enemy fire and can only take a few hits before it must recharge, while the cloak is purposed with allowing the probe to sneak up on its target(s), de-cloak, and then use its advanced targeting ability to quickly execute its target with a single lethal shot and then move on. Now this probe is only tough enough to take down one to three light infantry targets at once with the element of surprise, but with multiple slayers working together and again with the element of surprise on their side can takeout whole enemy squads, or even heavier enemy units.

I began by sending out two dozen scout probes towards the east to find a Nod base or outpost for me to attack as well as another dozen to scan and map the surrounding area around my base to give me more detailed info of my surroundings. Once they were off I then stated to produce Intel and assassin probes, both in preparation for the inevitable assault and to give myself an inexpensive little army. The other thing I did was review the reason for me coming to this universe and what I was after; while I indeed do want the designs for all of the units, buildings and tech from both sides, they were ultimately primitive in comparison to what the ACU and Alice can provide me with, however there are certain things that each side can offer me that would be a sort of shortcut in developing those specific pieces of technology. From both the GDI and Brotherhood I want to get a hold of their MCVs so I can combine them and the UEF's mobile factory in hopes of creating something superior and possibly making other mobile structures, as well as the designs for the Tiberium refineries so I can at least have the option of using those damn crystals. There isn't much I want from the GDI, I mean sure their walkers look neat but in my opinion the only thing worth having is the Firestorm generator and whatever research they have on Tiberium. The Brotherhood of Nod however has several things I would like to have, those include; their stealth field generator which should instead be named a cloaking field generator, the stealth (cloak) tank, possibly the tick tank, laser fencing, and finally the obelisk of light. With Alice's help I could probably replicate most of those technologies, but this way is more fun.

-OoO-

It was more than a day later before Alice notified me of Nod activity.

"Master one of the scouters has located a group of Nod infantry." I immediately snapped out of my musings and turned my attention to the view screen as I gave my reply.

"Show me Alice." With an affirmative the main screen showed me the little Nod squad from the POV of the scouter's optical cam. "It seems to be a patrol, have the other probes found anything else nearby?"

"No master, none of the other probes have located anything of note." Well that could mean only one thing then.

"The Nod base must be under cloak yet still nearby, redirect the other probe to that area to locate the base as well as any other patrols, keep at least one probe assigned to every squad found."

"Yes master, redirecting all nearby probes to commence search pattern of the designated area." The scouters would end up finding two more patrol squads and keep a constant vigil on them and as the day went on and the sun began to set the patrols all started to converge on an area nestled in a nearby valley. As the hours ticked by one of the squads suddenly passed through a shimmering field and disappeared, as the probe followed suit its vision blurred for a second before clearing to reveal the Nod base.

"Finally, Alice have the probes converge and map the base, make sure to have a probe follow any Nod unit that leaves the base and deploy the Intel and Assassin probes to the Nod base but do not attack yet." I needed to do this carefully and precisely and to do that I needed all the pieces to be in place. I turned to my small base and looked to the air factory to order the production of another new unit, the Kamikazes Interceptor. Call K-bombs of short, this unit is basically an oversized cruise missile fused with an interceptor fighter plane; designed to fly fast and under cloak its only function is to sneak close to a target and ram it at ballistic speeds destroying both, Kamikaze style. They were great for a surprise first strike, especially if they were used to take out key targets before launching the main attack.

As the Kamikazes were being built I looked to the progress of the scouters; the base looked quite typical, it had most of the available Nod buildings, all except the Tiberium Waste Facility, the Missile Silo, and the Temple. The one thing of note though was that the base had three tech centers.

"This looks like a research base." Talk about lucky, this base will have all I want and probably then some. "I want all of the buildings marked with beacons as well as the entry point and that area that looks like a motor pool." Alice didn't respond but instead nodded her head and got to work and took a more in-depth look at the base. There didn't seem to be many soldiers around, perhaps just under a hundred and most were heading towards the Hand of Nod barracks, there also weren't many vehicles, just a half dozen Attack cycles, a trio of flame tanks, an APC, a repair vehicle, two tick tanks, and a single harpy on the only helipad. All except the tick tanks were in what was most likely their version of a motor pool while the ticks were deployed by the only entry point along with a dozen or so infantry, a pair of Lasers and the bases single obelisk, it was one very well defended door.

As the last of the buildings were marked the Intel and Assassin probes finally arrived and the rest of the night was spent carefully positioning the various probes throughout the Nod base so that when the attack happened they could use the element of surprise to the fullest effect. At the same time the K-bombs were produced were moving into position high above the Nod base awaiting orders to begin the attack. The final act of preparation was the production and deployment of yet another new unit, mobile artillery; nicknamed the Onager this unit is a long range mobile artillery piece which fires hard-hitting ballistic concussive rounds that release superheated shrapnel upon detonation. The Onager also doubles as a mobile missile launcher able to deploy a missile rack capable of firing numerous kinds of missiles from surface-to-air rockets to bunker busting missiles armed with plasma warheads. All this makes the Onager great for taking out large groups of infantry or light vehicles, shaking buildings to their foundation, and hammering entrenched units or damaging hardened structures or heavily armored units at a range.

I ordered the production of six Onagers as well as a hybrid air transport to ferry them to a position roughly five miles from the Nod base, well out of radar range for the Nod, but well within firing range for the Onagers so long as they have a spotter, which they do in the form of my scout probes. The hybrid air transport was nothing special really; it had stealth plating, no weapons, and good carrying capacity but it was just a simple air transport. As dawn slowly approached I made on last check to insure everything was in position, and with a nod to myself I looked to Alice and gave to command.

"Alice, commence the attack." With more than a little excitement in her voice she replied.

"As you command master." The view screens all changed to give me multiple POVs from different scouters.

The first rays of the sun peaked out over the horizon as the loyal and fanatically devoted Nod troopers began their day, squads began heading out to either set out on their patrols or to take over guard positions and relieve their tired brothers and sisters, it seemed like any other day… then the world exploded. That's what it seemed like anyway as the first of the K-bombs came literally straight down from the sky, passing through the dome of cloaking energy, and all striking their specific targets. One K-bomb each for the six Nod power generators, the helipad, and the Nod barracks as well as another two K-bombs for the motor pool; as the generators were hit they seemed to take a split second before being engulfed in an explosive dome centered near the bottom of structure before that dome popped like a bubble of fiery energy and consumed the structure; this was because the K-bombs dived dead vertical when they began their attack and were going so fast that by the time they hit their target there was a delay before they detonated causing them to explode further within the building. The barracks was almost the same way, when its K-bomb hit it went clean through the structure and detonated under it with such force that for an instant it looked like the barracks was being lifted up by the explosion before being engulfed, the blast not only took out the barracks but also majority of the troops that had just minutes ago exited the building and the ones not killed were thrown like ragdolls. The motor pool and helipad didn't fare any better than the barracks or the generator, as when the K-bomb hit both the harpy and the helipad where simply erased and when the other two K-bombs hit the blast totally annihilated the APC, repair vehicle, and half the attack cycles while the other cycles were quite literally blown away, the fire tanks were also blown away, straight into the Tiberium silos and hit hard enough that the tanks fuel cells ruptured causing them the explode and take out over half the silos with them.

The K-bomb attack took barely three seconds and after the fourth second the cloaking field generator shut down due to having no power and once the field disappeared it seemed to act as a signal fore just as the base inhabitance were coming to terms with the fact that they were under attack, the entire entry point was suddenly rocked by the powerful and deadly shells of the Onager artillery units. The gate, its guarding lasers, the two tick tanks, and the squads of soldiers were hammered by the surprisingly fast firing artillery while throughout the rest of the base, surviving Nod personnel quickly fell victim to a brutal ambush as dozens of prepositioned slayers all over the base de-cloaked and essentially executed the base inhabitance. At the same time Intel probes began hacking the doors on all the surviving building allowing the remaining slayers to pour into them and continue their murdering spree with such efficiency that only machines are capable of. This, intern allowed the Intel probes to start hacking the various computers and data banks located within those said facilities and start downloading and transmitting the info back to their commander.

I watched as all this happened in minutes, I was amazed at how little time it took to completely overwhelm a base of nearly two hundred people, true only half were actual combat personnel while the rest were simple workers, engineers, and scientists and a third of the military personnel were taken out when the barracks was destroyed while another third was killed when the entry gate was hit and the rest were basically assassinated. The effectiveness of the K-bombs was also noted, I clearly forgot to take into account what kind of effect an interceptor sized cruise missile flying a terminal velocity could have on a non-fortified or hardened structure, or the ground. Alice's voice suddenly refocused my attention.

"Master I am beginning to receive data from the Intel probes." Wow, so soon, I wonder what she's getting.

"So what did you get?" The central screen suddenly changed and then various schematics and designs for familiar Brotherhood of Nod equipment, vehicles, and buildings appeared one after another along with other various technical info. "It looks like you have their entire encyclopedia."

"That seems to be quite accurate master, from what I can tell I am now able to produce all buildings, equipment, and vehicles belonging to the Brotherhood of Nod, in addition I now possess enough information on the substance known as Tiberium that with the construction of a hybridized Tiberium refinery I should be able to successfully extract usable mass from Tiberium crystals." That was terrific news, which meant the operation was a complete success.

"That's great Alice, how long until the download is finished?" She smiled sweetly as she answered.

"The download was completed during my explanation of what was acquired from the download… master." She was really developing quite the personality wasn't she?

"Okay then Alice, recall the slayers, Intel probes, and have the air transports bring back the Onagers and then have the scouters go help the others in their hunt for a GDI base." She nodded astutely as she responded.

"Yes master." It only took a few minutes for the probes to evacuate to base and when they did I gave the final order.

"Alright Alice, finish it." Seconds after the words left my mouth over a dozen K-bombs descended upon the remaining structures of the Nod base, one per building. The effect of the K-bombs varied amongst the buildings, for the war factory and refinery the explosion left them as flaming husks which quickly collapsed into ruble, while the construction yard and the stealth generator reacted similarly to the barracks, the obelisk went up like the power generators, and finally the strikes on the tech centers and SAM sites were just plain over kill, all that was lift of them were fiery craters. In the end the Nod research base was completely destroyed with nothing left but ruble, craters, and wall sections, meanwhile I made out like a bandit with all of their stuff, yep, this was a good day… for me, not them… not even close, because their dead. "Well Alice after all this I need some sleep." I adjusted my chair so it was leveled out like a bed and pulled out a blanked and pillow from the storage unit under the cockpit and laid down for some well-earned rest, I really need to construct some kind living quarters.

"Very well then master, pleasant dreams." Alice said that in such a caring way you'd almost forget that she was a machine.

-OoO-

It was more than a day later before the scouters found a suitable GDI base for me to assault; this was because they had to travel nearly 150 miles before they found a base that wasn't either to large, to close to other friendly or enemy bases, or composed of just a barracks. In the end they found a nice sized base that was located in a river valley less than twenty miles from the pacific coastline. The base itself was actually fairly large and fully developed by the games standards, consisting of two war factories, three double sized barracks, a dozen helipads, a large motor pool, numerous defense weapons, three service depots, an ion cannon uplink, and to top it off, a Firestorm generator, though only one tech center sadly. All this was present along with the standard buildings, and from the look of things the base was still expanding as evident from the power plant that was still under construction and the harvester which was still active. The instillation was clearly a FOB or staging area for a possible future incursion into Nod controlled territory or even a jump of point for a larger attacking force, as from the size of the motor pool which contained numerous vehicles from Wolverines and APCs to Titans and MLRSs, there were even a few Disrupter tanks, a pair of mobile EMP cannons and a Juggernaut, though thankfully there wasn't a Mammoth. The helipads had mostly Orca fighters but there were a trio of bombers and off to the side there were several carryalls standing by. Aside from vehicles, the base seemed to have a very large number of infantry; if Nod and GDI barracks were similar then going of the fact that a Nod barracks holds roughly a hundred soldiers and assuming the GDI barracks were the same, then the double sized barracks of this base signified the presents of at least 600 infantry units, and that number is likely to expand as this is actually a moderate sized base compared to others bases found, one such base was easily three times this size, with multiple Mammoths.

I spent two days observing the GDI base, during that time the majority of the scout probes had arrived and mapped the bases layout and tagged the buildings with beacons. The base was indeed expanding; two more power generators were built and construction started on a fourth double barracks, the motor pool was also expanded to make more room for two more Disrupter tanks that were flown in via carryall and for the occasional Wolverine, MLRS, or Titan produced by one of the war factories. Also during this time the scouters discovered four strategically placed mobile sensor arrays as well as began tracking patrol squads that would come and go. Another thing that I learned which I was too busy to notice during my operation against the Nod base was the real life method to how the two faction's war economy operated and how buildings were actually made. It was quite simple really; in the game the harvester when out and got Tiberium, then deposited it into the refinery which then converted it into funds that you used to buy shit, but in real life the refinery was actually used to extract the usable ores and minerals from the actual Tiberium crystal and then sent the raw material to either the construction yard or the war factory where it is processed and turned into building materials and/or parts and then assembled, while the Tiberium was, in GDI's case disposed of, or in Nod's case used to power energy weapons. As for the construction yards, they simply take the building materials and then construct and assemble the building in segments, it was actually a very efficient method as well as surprisingly quick.

All in all I judged this base to be a tougher nut to crack, while using K-bombs and artillery would take out a large amount of the opposition in the opening salvo, it wouldn't be enough to allow the slayers to successfully clean up what would be left of the defenders; reason being that security of this base was no were near as lacks as the Nod base was. At any one time fully half of the bases garrison was on guard duty or out on patrols while the other half was resting, and to top it off nearly a third of the squads had Wolverine support, something the slayers could not handle on top of infantry. So to take this base I decided to introduce another new hybrid unit, a gunship; known as the 'Reaper' gunship, this craft is a fast attack air unit armed with a rapid fire rail-gun meant to blanket an area with armor piercing death and direct-fire high yield rocket launchers as well as air-to-air missiles for taking out other gunships and heavier ground targets, while it is only armored with stealth plating, it has been thickened slightly and angled to help deflect incoming ballistic small-arms fire and with the reapers agility and maneuverability it can simply dodge enemy fire. Its appearance is a blend of mostly the UEF's stinger gunship without the fight pods and the Cybran's renegade gunship with slightly bigger wings for a higher missile capacity.

I ended up building five reapers and another half dozen Onagers to supplement the attacking force as well as numerous K-bombs, I also decided that because of the distance between my base and the GDI base that I had to construct a Quantum Gate and have a beacon set up in the mountains near the GDI base so I could cut down significantly on travel time, then I sent the probes through to position themselves within the base then sent the air transport loaded with the dozen Onagers to setup along the opposite side of the valley wall from the GDI position, out of range from GDI sensors but still within firing range… barely. Next went the reapers, which waited by the artillery, their mission was to hit any surviving armored units and to hit targets of opportunity to take pressure off of the slayers. Last to go through were the K-bombs, carful to reach a high altitude before taking position above the base and wait for the attack order.

I ended up waiting until 0100 hrs. Before launching the attack, my reasoning was to give my units all possible advantages. After one last check that everything was in position I turned to Alice.

"Okay Alice, commence the attack." Here we go.

"Yes master." The view screens changed to show me various POVs like in the last attack, I watched as the K-bomb rapidly descended.

It was a relatively peaceful and calm night at the GDI's newest forward staging base, the civvies were asleep and the guards and patrols were still fresh, yep it was totally normal… then all hell broke loose. Nearly a dozen K-bombs hit their marks while simultaneously the first artillery shells impacted just as the explosions from the K-bombs went off, resulting in nearly a third of the base being destroyed in less than five seconds. The generators, barracks, helipads, MSAs, and the motor pool were all hit by K-bombs while the two entrances and again the motor pool as well as specifically marked squads were hit by the Onagers, which all caused the power to fail, over four hundred soldiers to be wiped-out and the vast majority of the armored units to be destroyed of damaged beyond use. While that was going on, the reapers were on their approach to the base and less than thirty seconds after the K-bombs hit the slayers began their attack; from their hiding spots in the construction yard and around other buildings the slayers moved against unsuspecting GDI soldiers and personnel, clearing the construction yard in seconds before moving on to other victims while the Intel probes began their work of hacking and taking control.

As I watched the progress of the battle as well as the approach of my gunships, I was nearly shocked into jumping out of my chair as just seconds away from entering the base they were forced to veer off to avoid a suddenly active Firestorm defense shield baring their way and even blocking the artillery fire.

"What the hell, Alice I thought all the power generators were hit?" This was not good, without those gunships the slayers couldn't deal with the remaining defenders and their Wolverines and few active Titans.

"They were master, but according to the information I collected before we came to this universe the Firestorm generator has an internal charge." Oh shit that's right, I had completely forgotten about that, I have no idea how long an actual charge on one of those lasts in real life, this could be costly.

"Damn, well then have the reapers assist in taking out the remaining patrol squads outside of the base and keep the Onagers hitting the shield, maybe if we're lucky they will drain it faster." I watched as the reapers started to hammer into GDI patrol groups, their rail-guns absolutely shredded the troopers and were even effective against the occasional Wolverine they encountered, there were two patrolling Titans they had to deal with and the rail-guns weren't enough, however their anti-armor missiles were. As the reapers were prevailing outside the base, inside the defenders had rallied, forming up with their Wolverines and Titans taking point the GDI forces now numbering less than two hundred began to move to recapture their lost buildings forcing my probes to retreat to either the cover of their cloaks or inside the buildings to holdout against the enemy attack. As I watched the GDI counter attack I began to consider the situation; yes the Firestorm shield was a setback, but ultimately this base will fall as soon as the shield's charge runs out and besides, the download was mostly finished anyway, just as I began to consider ordering the construction of more probes, I saw the shield fail.

"Master the Firestorms charge has run out I am… master I am detecting several GDI air units approaching the base from the west!" I looked at what she was seeing and noticed two orca fighters and one carryall transporting a disrupter tank.

"I see, well then have one of the reapers attack the air group and the others finish off the base defenders." Alice nodded as she made it happen; the lone gunship approached the trio quickly, its stealth plating making it so its targets didn't know it was coming until they actually visually saw it. The reaper locked on to the two fighters with its air-to-air missiles and fired them, causing the fighters to swerve in an attempt to avoid the danger, but was pointless and the two air units were struck one after another and practically disintegrated, meanwhile the reaper aimed its rail-gun at the transport and fired a single three second burst, crippling it and causing it to plummet to the ground, not taking any chances the reaper swung around and fired two of its anti-armor missiles at the crashed air unit and its cargo, thoroughly destroying the wreck. Meanwhile, the reapers at the base successfully engaged the remaining defenders, using their rail-guns they reduced the infantry to a red mess and thoroughly shredded the Wolverines while the gunships anti-armor missiles made short work of the Titans; faced with such an effective onslaught the GDI forces were quickly wiped out and the slayers finished securing the base while the Intel probes finished their downloads.

"Congratulations master on your second victory, with this you now have acquired all of your objectives in this universe. The data received from the GDI has already refined my understanding of Tiberium and the new unit and building designs should be at least somewhat useful." I smiled at Alice as she told me this.

"Thank you Alice, but I couldn't have done this without you, and you are right about the designs, they should be most useful indeed." She smiled at my thanks, it was true, I literally could not do any of this without her. "Alice it's time to start wrapping this up, recall all the gunships and artillery as well as order all the deployed probes to amass near the center of the GDI base."

"Yes master." Alice answered as she started directing the units. It took a half hour to complete the task. "Master all of the probes are in position and all other units have been recalled."

"Good, launch The End." 'The End' was a K-bomb with an anti-matter warhead; I intended to use it to erase any evidence of my involvement in the destruction of the GDI base, as well as to dispose of the left over probes, it was a waste I know, but I was leaving soon and I couldn't take them with me.

"Yes master, The End is away." I watched through a specially placed scouter as the altered K-bomb sped towards the GDI base, as it came to the approximate center it detonated with the force of a one kiloton tactical nuke completely obliterating everything, the image quickly cutout as the blast wave hit the last scout probe.

"Well, now with that taken care of it's time to move on, Alice are we all set to leave?" With the successful acquisition of both of the local factions build lists as well as adequate samples of Tiberium there is really no reason to remain here.

"Yes master the Quantum Shifter is fully charged and inputted with the coordinates for our next destination, all which is needed is your final order." I grinned and took one last look at my base, I had gained much and soon I won't need to abandon my bases, just a few more pieces and then I can start building an empire, _my_ empire.

"Very well then, set the base's reactors to overload and get us out of here." All of the structures that I built were considered T2 buildings due to the ACU's tech 2 engineering suite, later I had upgraded the power generators to their T3 levels which were considered reactors instead of generators, this of course means more power, but also a bigger explosion should they blowup.

"Activating Quantum Shifter, shifting in 5 seconds…" As Alice did her countdown the bases reactors began to glow brightly as their energy containment systems started to fail, the countdown hit zero and the familiar black and purple lightning over took the view screens once again and we were off, and the base's reactors went critical, encompassing everything within five miles in deadly fusion energy.

Next stop… Red Alert!

-OoO-

Chapter End

A/N: Well that's chapter two, I hope you enjoyed it; frankly I was surprised at how long it turned out, let's see if I can keep it up, though I'm not sure if the next chapter will be as long but I am going to try for at least 5K words per chapter, with me luck.

Please Read & Review

Thank You


	3. Operation: Red Sun

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, suing me is not worth the court costs.**

**Special thanks to those who have faved my story.**

**Chapter 3 – Operation: Red Sun**

Once again the shifter to a new universe was quick and preceded by black and purple lightning, and the first images were, again, mountainous… but at least this time the sky looks normal.

"Okay Alice, where are we this time?"

"Just a moment master." Just like last time she began a rapid series of scans. "Master I have detected satellites in orbit again, however this time they are military satellites and their security is more robust but still primitive, shall I infiltrate them?"

"Yes do it, try to get the usual, time, location, events and the like." She flickered and brightened for a few seconds before returning to normal.

"Master we seem to be in Japan, central Hokkaido to be more precise, right next to a mountain known locally as Asahi-dake." She brought up a map and I saw we were literally right next to the tallest point on the island.

"Okay that's good, but are we in the right universe?" Being in Japan is a stroke of luck but it means nothing if we are in the wrong universe.

"According to the data, yes master we are in the Command & Conquer: Red Alert universe towards the end of Red Alert 3. It seems that the Soviets have already surrendered and the Empire is near its breaking point, in fact it is predicted that they will not last another month."

"Any mention of Yuri?"

"Yes master it seems as though the events of C&C: Yuri's Revenge did occur." Well it seems were are in the right universe, let's just hope the final detail is also present, but that's for later, right now it's time to deal with what I came to get from the Empire.

"Excellent, we seem to be right where we want to be, so let's get started; how far is the nearest settlement and where are the nearest mass deposits?"

"Well master there are some small villages about eight miles away and this location has several deposits." The view screens lit up with the indicated deposit positions, she was right, there were nearly a dozen within a half mile, must be because we're in the mountains. I followed the same procedure as last time, building an extractor and then a power generator followed by more extractors and storage units until I had enough mass to make a land factory to make a couple hybrid engineering bots to build stuff for me.

By the end of the day I had a good sized base set up and after I had enough generators I even made use of the spoils of the last universe I went to. Working together, me and Alice had taken the Nod's cloaking field generator and her preexisting cloaking tech and created our own version of the field generator; it was basically an enlarged hybrid stealth field generator reconfigured to emit a more advanced version of Nod's cloaking field. This new cloaking field generator was far better than Nods, it could cover more ground, used comparatively less energy, and could even fool radar and other sensors, plus when something went through the field, it didn't fluctuate. Not only was Alice able to develop the generator, but she was able to make very slight refinements to her already existing cloaking tech, reducing power requirements by three percent and size by five percent, not big improvements but still improvements none the less.

With the base built and properly hidden I began ordering the production of scouters and sent them off to search for a base of some kind for me to capture, knowing that the Empire was losing and the Allies were closing in, it was logical to assume that the Japanese were building more homeland bases in preparation for an inevitable invasion, and I was going to take one of them. When the scouters began their search I queued up the other units I would need for the future assault, mainly K-bombs, slayers, Onagers, and most importantly, Intel probes, I then reviewed the primary things I wanted from the Empire; the Nanocore, and the Nanotech mainframe. The idea of instant structures able to be set up anywhere was very appealing to me, and nanotech had so many applications, the mainframe would definitely be a good step into that line of tech development.

"Master, the probes have located an Imperial base." Alice's voice instantly grabbed my attention.

"So soon, where?" That was indeed faster than any of the previous searches.

"On the northern coastline master." A map appeared on one screen as the others switched to images. It appeared to be a well-developed yet minor naval base; complete with construction yard, instant dojo, power generators, ore refinery, twin mech bays, three dockyards, and best of all, a Nanotech mainframe. The entire base was also surrounded by a fortress wall and protected by their defense guns, the three dockyards was the indication of the base being naval in nature. From the scouter's location overlooking the base I could tell that it was fairy, though mildly, garrisoned; squads of imperial warriors roamed both in and outside the base perimeter as well as guarding the entrance along with a quartet of Mecha Tengus while their artillery was spaced intermittently throughout the base interior. There was also a motor pool where several tanks and transports sat waiting for action and the two mech bays seemed to have other Tengus in one while the other had Striker-VXs. At the dockyards there were six cruisers sitting just off coast seemingly guarding the dockyards as they worked to build more sea units, one of them looked to be constructing the massive form of a Shogun battleship, something I could not allow.

"Well now, that's a quaint little naval base now isn't it? That battleship might end up being a nuisance if completed but the rest should be taken care of quite nicely by the usual standard of attack that we've been using; no point of fixing what's not broke right?" Alice just shook her head in amusement as she spoke her agreement.

"I concur master, on all points; the battleship could become a threat if not dealt with and the usual method should no doubt succeed in capturing the base." I love it when we agree.

"Well start mapping out the base, tagging the builds and other targets of interest, while sending the Onagers to a nice concealed position in the nearby mountains along with the reapers. When the base is fully mapped dispatch the slayers and Intel probes were they'll be most effective, you know the usual." For this operation I had produced a dozen Onager artillery units, ten reaper gunships, and numerous K-bombs, slayer Assassin probes, and Intel probes; I was not going to risk anything going wrong this time, hence the extra reapers and K-bombs.

It took about four hours to fully map and tag the base as well as properly assess its garrison. Estimates put the garrison at approximately two hundred and fifty imperial warriors which were their form of infantry, as well as about another fifty of their rocket angels, the mech bays also had twenty-five to thirty of their respective mech units, and the motor pool had a dozen or so tanks and three transports. Offshore, the six cruisers diligently carried out their guard duty; vigilant against any water bound threat, but the absolute greatest irritant were the fifteen strategically placed artillery units. Normally such a thing wouldn't amount to much, but these units were placed in such a fashion that taking them out via K-bombs would cause far too much damage to the specific buildings that I wanted to capture, this meant I had to use my artillery to take out theirs, not a horrible predicament but it meant less Onagers to use against the entrance guards, oh well.

"Alice are all of the probes in place?"

"Yes master, they are all awaiting your command." My eyes scanned the screens one more time looking for anything that I might have missed before finally looking back to Alice.

"Well, no point in delaying it any longer, commence the attack." She flickered once and the screens once again took on the POV's of the scouters.

It was another glorious day in the land of the rising sun as the devout warrior of the divine emperor Yoshiro went about their assigned tasks of His will against the encroachment of the western barbarians, all seemed normal… then Hell arose. Or more accurately descended as the K-bombs all struck their targets; the dojo, generators, mech bays, docks, and motor pool were all hit by a single K-bomb each, essentially crippling base and killing nearly half of the defenders. Then, not even ten seconds later as the surviving garrison began to snap out of their stupor, another wave of K-bombs struck the cruisers and the battleship which still had yet to be finished, one K-bomb per cruiser that hit the center causing them to basically snap in half sinking them instantly, while the battleship was savaged by three strikes leaving nothing more than a floating, burning frame of a ship. As the second set of K-bomb impacted, so did the rounds from the Onagers; a dozen Onagers opened fire on the eight surviving base artillery and the entrance gate destroying the last of the enemy armor as well as blanketing the final cluster of warriors. After the K-bombs had done their work and the once the imperial artillery was gone the slayers began their work and started eliminating survivors; all over the base they would de-cloak, shoot, kill, and move on, entire areas was cleared in record time, it seemed as though this attack was going to be most routine one yet, then clusters of missiles started to rain down on areas where the slayers had only briefly shown themselves as the remaining rocket angels began striking out at their invisible foes.

Thanks to their advanced armor and ability to fire volleys of missiles, the slayers had difficulty dealing with the surviving rocket angels as only exposed portions of their face would be vulnerable to the slayers laser fire, add to that the angel's blanketing rocket fire was able to take out as many as three slayers at a time with pure dumb luck and their naturally hyper active attitudes which translated into quick and erratic movements made them that much harder to kill. However even with the minor success of the rocket angels the slayers were still able to defeat them one by one with their precision targeting and fast reaction times; slowly the angels were dying off and it was only going to get worse for them as the reaper gunships were moving to begin their own attack. I watched all this happen as the base was quickly scoured of all survivors and as I watched I laughed as something humorous occurred to me.

"Hey Alice do you know what I find a bit ironic?" I asked as I saw the reapers start engaging the rocket angels.

"No master, what do you find so ironic?" The reapers were quickly shredding the angels as they returned fire with their missiles, however the reapers were able easily avoid them.

"What I find ironic is the use of K-bombs against the Japanese?" It was true, and ironic, after all the 'K' stood for kamikaze, a term coined by the Japanese themselves. Alice too did laugh as she realized this

"You're right master that is ironic." We both chuckled a bit as we watched the last of the base defenders get cut down by the reapers, it looked as though the fight was over, however my attention was then directed to a situation that was occurring inside the various structures which the assassin and Intel probes were attempting to capture. Inside the buildings the probes were under attack from shinobi of all things, they would appear from the shadows, strike at a visible probe, and then attempt to hide again, but most of the time after they attacked, they themselves would be struck back… usually in the back. While the attack of the shinobi was an interesting turn of events, it was in the end nothing more than a mild delay and the bases remaining structures were successfully captured. As I began to believe this to be another fruitful operation suddenly one of the reapers was hit by what appeared to be an energy bolt, blowing off its left wing section and sending it hurtling into the earth. The other gunships quickly turned their sights to where the attack came from and as they opened fire another of their number had its tail section shot off bringing it down as well. As the gunship were furiously pouring their wrath on to the source of the attack, which ended up being the cratered remains of the dojo, I got a good look at what fired those energy bolts thanks to the POV of one of the scouters; it was a damn archer maiden.

"How in the hell did she survive the dojo being destroyed?!" It was fair question; after all there literally was nothing left but a crater, but here she was, desperately trying to conceal herself from the torrent of rail-gun fire which was quickly chewing up her cover.

"Unknown master, the dojo was destroyed and there was no movement detected, perhaps she was elsewhere when it was struck." She had a point, however…

"Sounds possible, but then why was she not discovered before the attack?" It was odd really, there was no sign of her when the probes were mapping and scouting out the base.

"The probes did not search the inside of the buildings master; she could have been in one of the structures that were not hit."

"Well however she avoided detection it doesn't matter now, hurry up and take her out." She didn't respond but the reapers then started firing their direct-fire missiles into the maiden's remaining cover and eliminating the rest of her protection. I saw as the reapers moved in for the final kill, her barley conscious form clinging to life as one of the reapers lined up for a final shot and fired a missile, turning her into pink mist. That seemed to be the end of the resistance and as I was about to voice that thought to Alice a cluster of missile struck one of the reapers, destroying it and forcing the others to scatter to avoid more missiles before turning to meet their new foe, a badly scarred striker-VX, which somehow survived the destruction of its mech bay. Half of the remaining reapers moved to engage the striker and I looked at Alice's hologram.

"Alice, I am beginning to think that this base had some kind of main characters, because now we have a second enemy that somehow survived their buildings destruction when all the others were killed in the first five minutes." It was the only explanation, not only for surviving but remaining undetected long enough to takeout at least one of my gunships, and this striker pilot was maneuvering his machine around way to fluidly.

"Master I agree that there have been a couple of strange occurrences at this base, but I do not believe it is the cause of main characters." As she said that two more of my reapers were destroyed by two largish missiles from four of the empires Sea-Wing air-sea craft as they arose from the ocean. I just stared at Alice who now looked a little flustered as the new enemy units moved to attack the remaining reapers. "Then again master, there might be some validity to your suspicions."

When this battle began there were ten reaper gunships, now that has been reduced to half, one reaper against four sea-wings and four reapers against one annoyingly elusive striker, I was now grateful that I had decided to build extra gunships. The lone reaper began its attack by first firing two of its AA missiles at one of the sea-wings and firing its rail-gun into the cockpit of another taking them both down and then dodged a missile from one of the other sea-wings, it then circled around using its superior agility to come up behind one of the sea-wings and put two more AA missiles into its back end and then quickly turned and shot two missiles fired from the last remaining enemy out of the sky with its rail-guns before finishing off its opponent with a direct-fire rocket to the cockpit. At the same time that was happening, the other four reapers had finally managed to corner their wile target in a crossfire, using their rail-guns the reapers shredded the strikers legs and surrounded it, then each gunship fired a single anti-armor missile into the enemy unit completely destroying it. As I watched the battle end I waited a few moments to see if any more surprises happened, when it looked like there were none I turned to Alice.

"Well?" I asked. "Is that it, are we done here?" Alice took a minute before answering, analyzing the situation before rendering her verdict.

"It appears so master, there are no more enemy units detected and all available data has been downloaded from the captured structures, this operation is finished." I let out a tired sigh at this.

"At last, okay Alice recall all our forces it's time to clean this up before they send someone to see why one of their bases have gone dark." She nodded and carried out my instructions, it would take only ten minutes before she would report.

"Master, the base has been evacuated and our units are minutes away from returning."

"Alright then Alice, sweep the base under the rug." That was a code phrase for a special type of strategic strike.

"Right away master, commencing strike." As she said that I saw the naval base get carpet bombed by K-bombs, when it was over there was literally nothing left of the base, just burning craters slowly getting flooded as the sea water came in.

"Well with this are business with the Japanese empire is finished, how about our next objective, have the scouters arrived yet?"

"No master they are still in route to the designated search zone." Damn, guess I have some waiting to do.

"Well in that case we had better do something to pass the time, let's go over what we have so far." So we past the time waiting by going through the data and info on what has been acquired from the previous missions and planning out future operations as we waited for the scouters to arrive at their target zone, the northern most territory in the Soviet Union.

-OoO-

It would be three days later before the scouters would arrive at their destination, the island known as Lyakhovskiy located north of Siberia. During this time the Japanese discovered the destruction of their naval base, Alice intercepted communiques that suggested that they couldn't figure out whether the base was taken out by the Allies or a meteor shower, which got a laugh out of me. Now, the reason for sending those scouters to that island was to find my next objective and reason for choosing this particular C&C universe, a still intact yet abandoned secret Yuri base. It was one of the prerequisites for coming here, since Yuri was defeated I had no idea if any of his bases were still intact, and if they were I wouldn't be able to find them without extensive searching which could take months, something I wouldn't want to do, so I cheated and went to a version of the universe that had one in a location which only I would know. It was Yuri's mind control and cloning tech that I was after, after all I was going to eventually build an empire and to do that I was going to need loyal living soldiers to conquer other worlds of living beings and in the beginning I needed a way to quickly subjugate the populous without a long drawn-out occupation, so an altered version of Yuri's mind control machines would be most useful and using his cloning tech, upgraded with my tech would easily give me a vast army of soldiers in a short amount of time.

While waiting for the scouters to arrive I did some prep work and built replacement reapers and probes for the ones lost during the previous engagement, despite the fact that the Yuri base is supposed to be abandoned as per the requisite, I even constructed a Quantum teleporter to send the Intel probes once the scout probes have actually located the base in order to save on travel time. It was during the late afternoon as I was examining the data on the Nanocores that Alice informed me of the probe's arrival.

"Master the scouters have reached their destination."

"About time, show me Alice." The screen changed to the probes POV to display… a wintery wasteland, well that's not good. "I don't see anything Alice, are you sure the scouters in the right location?"

"Yes master, the probe is at the correct coordinates; however this is only a small part of the island, perhaps if we send more probes and have them scour the area they could find something." I nodded and replied.

"Good idea, do it." With that several dozen more scouters were sent through the teleporter to search the island. It would be another hour before it was spotted; a surprisingly large citadel-like facility, with high walls and huge buildings the whole place gave off an eerie sense of hopelessness that radiated even through the transmission.

"Well, what a cheery place. Let's do this quickly, Alice, send in the Intel probes and have them and the scouters move in and get what we need, this should be a fast in and out mission."

"Yes master." After a few minute the collection of probes setoff towards the fortress-base; as they got closer a line of small structures came into view, Gatling cannons, psychic towers, and genetic mutators were arranged in a defensive line approximately a quarter mile from the citadel walls, however it was a moot point as not only would they be deactivated due to the place being deserted, but the probes were all cloaked and therefore undetectable. I should have known better that it wouldn't be that easy; as the probes came within three hundred meters the cannons suddenly came to life and started unleashing a steady torrent of armor piercing bullets at my probes, their thin stealth plating no match for that kind of weapons fire. The invisible probes were quickly torn apart under the deadly tide of firepower and it was only Alice's quick reaction time that prevented all of them from being wiped-out, despite that though over half were now scrap metal and I was confused as hell.

"Alice, did those cannons just shoot at my probes?"

"Yes master."

"My _invisible_ probes?"

"Yes master."

"… How?" At this point I was understandably irritated, those probes were hidden by technology a thousand years more advanced than anything this planet could possibly come up with and in less than ten seconds dozens of them were now laying in pieces in the snow, shot down as if they had no stealth or cloaking ability whatsoever, by weapon emplacements which should have been dormant for years.

"Umm… I may have an explanation for this master…" She hesitated for a bit, unsure if she should voice her theory, I had to gesture her to continue before she finally spoke. "Well, Yuri utilized psychic technology and even had psychic radar so it is likely that is why the probes were able to be targeted, they were meant to be hidden from regular technological and optical detection, concealment from psychic exposure was never considered."

"Okay, but what about the fact that they were active in the first place, that base is supposed to be abandoned."

"Well master, they could be automated; the base could very well be abandoned but the defenses were left active to ward off future intruders."

"I suppose that dose make sense, though I didn't think that Yuri had that kind of tech, well whatever, send the Onagers to destroy the cannons, they should no doubt be able to do it from a safe distance." Ten minutes later the artillery units arrived and arranged themselves in firing line and began laying waste to the base's defensive line when they too started being hit by what resembled return artillery fire. My jaw dropped at this new development, it wasn't until the screen's scouter POV camera zoomed in to show several previously unspotted tank bunkers and the source of what was hitting my artillery, Lasher tanks, Yuri's counter artillery unit; dozens of them all in tank bunkers and hammering the Onagers whom were starting to take serious damage, they tried to return fire and destroy the enemy artillery but there were too many and soon the Onagers began to be killed off one by one until they were force to fall back or risked being wiped-out.

I cursed at yet another unforeseen obstacle. "Son-of-a-bitch, send in the reapers!" At my order a dozen gunships sped through the teleporter, formed up, and raced off to destroy their targets. They opened fire as soon as they came in range and promptly reduced the first line of Lasher tanks to burning wreaks with their anti-armor missiles. As they proceeded to finish off the last of the artillery units the reapers were then themselves fired upon by yet more newly reviled enemy units, Gatling tanks, also in tank bunkers; unable to withstand the brutal surge of .50 caliber armor-piercing rounds, the relatively thin stealth armor plating of four of the reapers was shredded and subsequently the rest of their innards as they were destroyed by the tanks before they and the others could take evasive action. The other reapers attempted fight back and were able to take out a few of the Gatling tanks and even a couple of the remaining Lashers, but they were unable to avoid the continuous stream fire and soon a fifth reaper was brought down, then a sixth, and when I finally decided to order the gunships back there were only three left.

I just couldn't believe it. "Alice this doesn't make any sense, how can there be active tanks, automated defenses don't account for them, no one, not even Yuri could build automated tanks."

"I'm sorry master; I have no idea how to explain this." I could tell that Alice was honestly as confused as I was, and it seemed that she was taking it harder than I was, after all, she was supposed to be the AI with all the answers.

"It's alright Alice; I guess this base isn't as _abandoned_ as we thought." There indeed must be someone in there, question is, who?

I decided to take a step back and assess this new situation and try to come up with a solution; I could probably just spam gunships but that seemed bit below my standards, I considered using K-bombs but dismissed the idea since their stealth and cloaking ability would no doubt be useless and they'd most likely be shot down before they could hit their targets, no I needed a ground unit that could withstand artillery strikes and be able to takeout tanks in bunkers, I needed a tank of my own, luckily I already have one designed and ready for production.

Simply called the Assault tank this unit has an appearance similar to the UEF's Pillar heavy tank and the GDI's disrupter tank, meaning that it's a quad tracked tank, designed to be a standard frontline combat tank and deployed in-masse to present an armored front with respectable fire power. The Assault tank is armed with a single barreled heavy gauss cannon, two Gatling lasers, and a mortar launcher. Its armor is a special composite armor that is made up of not only thick and angled combat armor but is also coated in a newly developed laminate coating that is resistant to laser based weaponry and is actually capable of reflecting incoming laser fire, however the coating has a comparatively low thermal tolerance so a sustained laser weapon could end up boiling through the protective coating; the armor is not only meant to defect glancing blows but also pit when directly hit, the laminate coating also give the tank a glossy look. The final feature of the Assault tank is that it is equipped with its own cloaking device reversed engineered from the Brotherhood of Nod's stealth tank giving it the ability to remain invisible when not firing its weapons, this caused the tank's original size to be increased resulting in a very slight reduction in speed, but it was deemed worth it.

It took three hours to build and deploy two dozen Assault tanks; arranged in a spaced out double line wall of armor my tanks began their attack. Moving a max speed and under cloak even if it was pointless, the assault tanks charged at the citadel's defense line and as soon as they got within range came under fire from the Lashers, undeterred my tanks continued on, ignoring near misses and shrugging off direct hits as they eventually came to the first line of defenses that were originally hit by the Onagers. Using their main cannons the Assault tanks opened fire on the few remaining structures that survived the Onager attack, the tanks literally didn't stop their charge as they fired at the last of the Gatling cannons, psychic towers, and occasional mutator and as they sped through the line even rammed a couple of them. When the Assault tanks came to the line of bunkers they fired not only their gauss cannons but also shot off a few mortar rounds; the Lashers with their relatively thin armor were easily destroyed by both the mortars and the gauss cannon fire and as for the Gatling tanks whom put up a brave but meaningless fight were also quick put-down by my advanced tanks.

As I watched my Assault tanks weave through the bunkers and essentially butcher the enemy tanks with well-placed mortar and gauss shots, the latter of which easily penetrated the bunkers armor I commented to Alice.

"You know, we should have done this in the first place, it would have saved so much time."

"Agreed master; however we couldn't have known the full state of the base's defenses nor the fact that they were all active, in fact there could still be more defenses inside the base." Fucking hell she's right, we don't know what's left inside, I can't believe we still haven't even gotten to the base's wall yet.

While I was having that thought, the Assault tanks finished off the last of the bunkers and their garrisoned units and were moving to the citadel wall to finally breach the base. Sadly it wouldn't be that easy; when they got to within two and fifty meters of the wall a dozen sections of the ground fell downward into ramps and from the hidden openings emerged Soviet Apocalypse tanks, five dozen in total. I watched in total disbelief as the new mass of enemy armor opened fire on my Assault tanks that were now outnumbered five to one and also returned fire. The large cannons of the enemy tanks were actually able to do damage to my tanks and as the minutes of the battle passed some of my tanks were beginning to suffer serious damage; even though it only took two good hits to take out an opposing tank, the five to one odds were causing the fights to have close outcomes and eventually my side took its first lost, then its second, and then third. It was clear that my tanks needed help; luckily it came in the form of three Apocalypses begin destroyed simultaneously by two anti-armor missiles each as the three remaining reapers entered the fight. The battle lasted only a few more minutes as the reapers and Assault tanks dispatched the last of the Apocalypse tanks with their superior weapons; the final loss on my side was five tanks destroyed and the rest moderately to heavily damaged, only four were left in actual fighting condition, I just hoped it would be enough.

"I can't believe this base had five dozen Apocalypse tanks as a final line of defense."

"It defiantly is an unexpected tactic master, one few would anticipate." No kidding, I doubt anyone playing the game would expect to encounter such a thing on one of the levels/missions.

My tanks were finally able breach the wall into the citadel without further hindrance and quickly secured the area within only encountering a few Gatling tanks and cannons which were easily dealt with. The inside of the base was actually one large central structure and numerous smaller ones that could be barracks or factories of some kind, honestly none of the buildings looked like the ones in the game except the defensive ones and the wall sections. After the tanks finished clearing the area and locating what was most likely the main structure's front door I immediately sent in my remaining probes, including the slayers. When they arrived the Intel probes quickly gain entrance and the slayers then funneled in and began securing the place room by room as the scouters began mapping and relaying back visuals of the interior. The inside was mostly science labs and workshops along with other habitation facilities, it appeared as though this base might be a bust as I found no sign of any cloning facility or area that could contain mind controlling devices, that is, until the probes located what amounted to a basement entrance.

It was in the lower levels that I found all the horrors that could be associated with a mad man like Yuri, dissection tables, holding cells, and cloning pods as well as other pod containing what were no doubt failed experiments. However the one thing still missing was some sort of computer mainframe, there were plenty of smaller terminals but nothing like what I was looking for. As the probes continued their exploration they came across what looked like a blast door of some kind, the Intel probes were easily able to hack in and open it, what they found… was a bit disconcerting.

From out of the opened blast doors came a literal horde of enlarged brutes; they charged once they saw the probes, their massive arms swinging and crushing the spherical machines as they pour out into the base. The slayers attempted to fight back and contain the monstrosities but their laser weapons couldn't do enough damage quick enough as the brutes seemed to ignore pain and heal so fast that the small holes the slayer's laser causes were quickly healed over, only head shots actually killed any of them but the brutes were not only big but fast and the slayers couldn't always dodge them nor could they fire fast enough, add to that the brutes could apparently see the probes even when cloaked, so the probes were quickly forced to retreat out of the main facility being chased all the way outside, luckily any brutes who followed were easily killed by the awaiting Assault tanks with their Gatling lasers which not only fired incredibly fast but also left a much bigger wound then the slayers laser weapon; as the brutes that ran outside were slaughtered by my tanks the ones inside seemed to realize that leaving the build was suicide and retreated back into the building.

"I have to say Alice; this base is just full of surprises."

"Indeed master, the presence of such a large number of brutes is most startling, especially when added to the other unforeseen revelations about this facility and you have to wonder what else was present here."

"Right again Alice; it looks like I need to utilize another new unit to take this base." That unit being an infantry bot.

I call it the Centurion; in appearance it resembles one of the drones from the movie Iron Man 2 only tougher looking and standing at two meters tall with angular armor with the same laminate coating as the Assault tank the Centurion is decently armored and even equipped with a light shield that is actually able to function even when the Centurion uses its weapons, however the shield can only take a small number of hits before it must recharge and its recharge rate is directly proportional to how often it fires its weapons meaning it will recharge faster if the Centurion does not use its weapons. The Centurion is armed with rapid fire pulse-lasers on the top of its forearms and light gauss auto guns on the outer facing side of its forearms as well as a grenade launcher on the bottom of its forearms able to fire a variety of grenade types and finally in-between each grenade launcher and forearm is an extendable blade about a foot long with one side of the blade being serrated. These weapons and its superior strength make the Centurion a very dangerous infantry unit, especially when they're used in groups or squads as I've designed them for.

I ended up creating and fielding fifty Centurions, a process that took over an hour, and then another half hour for them to run over to the enemy base and begin their mission of exterminating all the brutes. As the Centurions entered the facility they were immediately beset upon by the horde of brutes, and the Centurions showed just how effective they were; using both their arms they made full use of their weapons, their pulse-lasers caused thrice the damage as the slayer's laser weapon and fired so fast that it was actually able to cut brutes in half, and their gauss guns were able to do it too, in fact that weapon actually did slightly more damage as it shredded the monsters. The extendable blade was also effective at carving up the enemies as severed limbs and heads would occasionally fall to the floor followed shortly by its former owner. Lastly, the grenade launcher made a wondrous mess of the hordes of brutes and more than one corridor was filled with ruined bodies.

I was actually enjoying the show as my new infantry mowed through the endless number of abominations, it felt satisfying to not only see something I created be so successful but also see it deliver pay back to the ones who caused me so many delays by slaughtering their creations. Even though my forces did suffer a few casualties, it was paltry compared to what they dished out, and when the last of the brutes were finally killed the Centurions finally managed to enter the room were the brutes originated, and there they found some kind of vault door, which one of the few remaining Intel probes managed to open; inside was yet something else neither I nor Alice expected.

"Well Alice; this explains why the base was so active."

"Agreed master, I could never have expected this."

All to true, for inside was not only numerous cloning pods containing clones of seemingly random people whom were no doubt the crew of all those tanks, but at the end of the room, hardwired into some kind of large machine, was a Yuri Prime, and as my Centurions approached he looked right at the one whose optics I was seeing through, and spoke.

"Well, if it isn't my newest guest, I hope you have enjoyed yourself?" I wondered if he knew the Centurions were robots. "Oh, I know these things in front of me are machines Masin." Okay that just freaked me out, I am in Japan right now and he's in northern most Russia, how can he even know I exist. "Oh I don't think that matters right now boy, in fact I don't think anything will matter you anymore."

As he finished his sentence I felt my head suddenly explode with pain as I abruptly remembered an important fact about Yuri and his clones… they were psychic. I felt myself scream in pain and Yuri start cackling evilly as my head felt like it was being torn apart. I heard Alice yell out to me in a panic and then I looked toward the view screens showing Yuri and saw him get hit with three grenades from the Centurions, utterly obliterating him, and as that happened all the pain stopped and I lost consciousness.

-OoO-

I'm not sure how long I was out, but I awoke with a groan and then heard Alice's voice.

"Master? Master are you alright?" Her voice sounded worried, distraught, and disparate while the look on her face reflected those emotions and if she were human I have no doubt she would have been crying.

"Yea, um… what happened?"

"You started screaming right before Yuri started laughing manically, I tried to get you to tell me what was wrong but you just kept screaming so I did the only thing I could think of and destroyed Yuri, after that you blacked out and wouldn't wake up until now, master it's been ten hours, are you alright?" Her voice was thick with worry and was desperate for good news.

"Yes Alice, I feel fine, I had forgotten that Yuri was psychic, but I didn't know he could be so powerful, must have been that machine he was hooked up to."

"That seems logical master, but are you sure you are alright?" She seemed to be calming down now.

"Yes Alice I'm sure, thank you for your concern, now I would like an update on the current situation."

She seemed to be relived but was also slightly reluctant to move on so quickly right after having such a scare of nearly losing her master, but nonetheless answered, partly due to his order and partly due to at least somewhat liking the return to normalcy. "Well master after you passed out and I was unable to awaken you I couldn't figure out what I could do to help you, so I decided to just do what you would normally have me do anyways and just hope you would soon wake up on your own. Currently all data from Yuri's base has been downloaded, everything you were after has been successfully acquired, also all units have been recalled and I am now awaiting your final order on what to do with the remains of the enemy base. Master I am sorry that I couldn't do more to help you."

"It's alright Alice, you did exactly what you should have, and if you hadn't reacted so quickly and took out Yuri then I could have really been in trouble. But anyway, if the base has been evacuated then it's time to end this frustrating operation, launch 'The End'."

Alice smiled as she carried out my order; clearly she too wanted that base gone. I watched with satisfaction as the modified K-bomb impacted and annihilated that accursed place leaving only a desolate crater and erasing all but the memory of what was found there.

"Master, the enemy base has been destroyed." The amount of satisfaction in her voice was almost overwhelming, but understandable.

"Alright, time to prepare for our next Quantum Shift." Indeed it was time to leave this universe, but first it was time to finally construct my home away from home.

What Alice and I set out to design and build was a Command Center; using all of the technology and designs I have gathered we developed a facility that I could use in place of the ACU. Not only would the Command Center serve as my new living facility but it would also have all of the functions and capabilities of several other structures; first of which being a mass extractor able to find mass deposits and settle over one and mine and store the mass it extracts in six MSUs, the Center also functions as a mobile factory capable of constructing Nanocores that have been altered and adapted to unpack into my various buildings, they can also be stored inside the Command Center itself for rapid deployment for the creation of instant buildings and bases. The Center also has its own built in power reactor and ESUs for self-sufficiency and to help provide power for its shield and cloaking generators, however due to power requirements they cannot be used together without additional power generators. Another feature the Command Center has is a cloning facility able to produce and imprint a hundred clones simultaneously at varying speeds; Yuri's cloning tech was slightly upgraded by Alice to allow for faster gestation periods without sacrificing the longevity of the clones and Yuri's mind control and imprinting techniques were refined so that a clone of anyone would still be loyal to me despite knowing they were clones of individuals who originally had totally different lives and loyalties or even people whom I might have killed myself, the imprinting even assured that no matter the clones previous skill set they could easily be given the necessary skills needed to fulfill any roles I might need.

One of the other features of the Center was the specially designed tech mainframe; this was an entire level dedicated to research and development of technology and units which both Alice and I could use to further my goals of creating new techs and devices to help me build my empire, it was also a secondary Quantum data bank were Alice could store all of the accumulated technology as well as a place for her to inhabit in case something happened to her cube. The command facility is also armed to the teeth, weapons include; four triple barreled gauss cannons from the UEF's mobile factory, one Heavy Microwave Laser, three SAM launchers and flak cannons, ten point defense towers, five gauss and five heavy laser, two artillery installations, and one strategic missile launcher.

The final and most important feature of the Command Center was a specially designed docking bay for the ACU; intended to allow the ACU to link power sources with the Command Center to provide the necessary energy to use the Quantum Shifter to transport both of them to a new universe. All these features and abilities allowed the Command Center to provide me with a more capable and comfortable means to pursue my goals and further my plans.

"Well Alice, I think this might be our greatest work yet." It took over a week to design and build this thing, now here I was standing in the control room with a full sized hologram of Alice standing right next to me, quite a change from her spot on the cube. The ACU was currently docked and had linked its systems to the Center and the now larger view screens were giving me the usual feed.

"Indeed master, this facility will allow for far faster base creation and will provide you with more adequate protection as well as a proper place to inhabit." She got that right, there was one whole level devoted to providing me with living amenities and all the comforts of home. In fact the entire facility was nine levels, four above ground and the rest below; because of this the facility needed its own teleporter to remain mobile.

"Okay, it's time for us to leave, are the new Nanocores all built and stored and all of the mass and energy storage units filled to capacity?"

"Yes master, everything is ready for our next Quantum Shift." Alright, time for the next universe.

"Then set the base reactors to overload and engage the Shifter." Alice nodded and started her countdown, I watched excitedly as the status of the Shifter was displayed on the central screen and read all green.

"… commencing Quantum Shift." She said that and all around the Command Center the usual black and purple lightning storm enveloped a bigger area than ever and then it and we vanished, shortly after the base's reactors all went critical and the entire mountain was engulfed in what was essentially a fusion bomb, resulting in several small villages being destroyed from my departure.

Next stop… the Koprulu Sector.

-OoO-

Chapter End

A/N: Well this chapter turned out way longer than expected, and the next one should be longer still, which is why I don't think it will be out for an entire week; it's not just the chapter length but also because of Thanksgiving, so I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and have a happy Thanksgiving.

Please Read & Review

Thank You


	4. The Koprulu Objective

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, suing me is not worth the court costs.**

**Special thanks to those who have faved and followed my story.**

**Chapter 4 – The Koprulu Objective**

"So, this is an alien world eh, it's so… boring." That was an understatement; the images shown from outside my Command Center (which I am going to have to nickname later) revealed a dry, arid, and rocky landscape which wouldn't look out of place in Arizona; in fact the only indication that this planet could support life at all was the blight blue skies and sparse desert plant life. "Alice, what have we got on sensors?"

"Well master, it appears that we are not in immediate proximity to any settlements or artificial structures, nor does there seem to be anything detectable in orbit. On a different note, there are plenty of mass deposits located in various sized clusters all over the immediate area." As she gave her report a map of the area appeared and showed the aforementioned data as well as the fact that we were located in a wide valley with tall mountainous walls on both sides making this site very defensible.

"I see… well then, position us over one of the deposits and then deploy the Nanocores we brought, once the base is up and running, start sending out scout probes to find some civilization." With the orders given Alice immediately teleported the Center to one of the larger mass deposit clusters and placed us on a deposit then after the Center unfurled a set of bay doors opened up and the 'cores exited and then they too began to unpack into their predesigned buildings.

First to setup were a pair of power generators and thanks to the new technology of the Nanocores the process only took a fraction of the time it normally took; with those generators now supplying the Center with additional power, the Center's remaining systems came online. After a few more generators unpacked the next 'cores to deploy were the air and land factories followed by several mass extractors and then mass and power storage units; once the factories were up and running and sufficient mass had been gathered dozens upon dozens of scouters were constructed and sent out in every direction possible to, hopefully, find signs of habitation, it would be most unfortunate if this planet turned out to be empty.

With nothing better to do as I waited for the probes to carry out their mission, I looked over at Alice's new life-sized hologram now being used in the CC (Command Center); this hologram was much more detailed and thus showed color unlike the hologram that was displayed by her cube which was basically a bright light in the general shape of her avatar, the problem was that her avatar pretty much lacked any color to begin with. Her skin was a flawless milky-white and her hair was bright silver while her eyes seemed to be an almost glowing golden color, her dress had gone from a sundress to a much more form fitting and backless sky-blue dress which showed off her curvaceous figure without being obscene… sadly.

"Master, is there something you find displeasing about my avatars form?" Apparently she noticed my ogling err, observations.

"Not at all, in fact I find your appearance quite beautiful, I was just curious as to your choice in avatars." I answered honestly and without hesitation with a gentle smile I my face, all of which seemed to be pleasing to her as her face colored slightly as she responded.

"I thank you for your compliment master and am happy you approve, as to your inquiry, I did not choose my appearance, this is my default look, if you wish you could alter my appearance at any time to make it more pleasing for you." I blinked at that before shaking my head and turning my attention to the ever growing map on the main view screen before replying.

"No, I couldn't do that Alice, if that truly is your normal look than altering it would be changing who you are and quite frankly who you are right now is perfectly fine I would never ask you to change who you are." Alice's smile had turned to pure wonderment and awe as she listened to my explanation.

"Master I… thank you, thank you very much." I smiled back at that, clearly she would never have expected an answer like that; I never realized at the time, but my little speech had strengthened her loyalty to nearly scary levels, had I known that at the time I may have shivered.

"Alice, looking at our position in this valley I think it would be prudent to better fortify the area in case we encounter any potentially dangerous foes." Alice's demeanor held its joyful tenor for a few more second before turning back to its usual stoic expression and then replying.

"I agree master, though the base is currently cloaked and unknown to anyone there is still a small possibility that we could encounter a force which would render that entirely mote."

"Indeed, which is why I want you to start sending out HEBs (Hybrid Engineering Bots) up to the valley walls to start installing defensive structures and also to either end of the valley proper to build multiple defense lines against enemy attackers." She nodded and then I saw the HEBs start to move out as well as more began to be queued up and built, I also noticed new Nanocores being queued up.

The next several days were spent fortifying the immediate area against any and all possible enemy assault; the valley walls which were high and steep making an attack from their direction likely from the air, were equipped with numerous anti-air turrets mainly on the far side, these turrets ranged from rail guns to pulse lasers and plasma weapons all of which were of high rates of fire and collapsible to disguise their appearance as boulders or part of the mountain side. Other defenses included missile launchers with variable yields as well as extra-long range artillery cannons installed in fixed positions on the highest points which were also collapsible and actually sunk part way into the rock face; another battlement were a small number of large high powered laser and plasma cannons hidden in the mountains themselves, meant to be anti-ship weapons to blast low flying in-atmosphere vessels they hopefully would deal with any starships bold enough to attempt to engage my base directly. Powering all these defenses were multiple subterranean generators built inside the valley walls which should provide all the energy necessary to keep all the battlements firing throughout a prolonged conflict; there were also a series of fabricators for supplying missiles and munitions to the non-energy turrets.

As for the other two approach vectors to the base along the valley, they were fortified with several layers of turrets, walls, bunkers, and mine fields all to give any approaching force a living nightmare to attempt to slog through in order to reach the base, and that was all before they even met any actual defenders. Divided into inner and outer lines, the outer line was further divided into five layers of defenses each including a tall, thick, and well-armed wall which had rail-cannons, laser, and plasma cannon turrets that were placed in front, behind, or built into the wall itself and were all either anti air, infantry, or armor, though the anti-air turrets could easily double as anti-infantry. All the layers were separated by a dense minefield and in the event one layer was successfully overrun and/or captured, all structures including the wall itself were rigged with a powerful self-destruct to prevent them from being used against me; as a final 'fuck-you' once all of the outer lines defense-layers have been breached, buried underneath the line were a string of low-yield fusion bombs guaranteed spoil anyone's day.

The main difference between the outer and inner defense lines was the fact that the outer line was all automated/remote-controlled turrets while the inner line had actual combat units; the inner line was set-up pretty much like the outer line, five layers with a wall, turrets, and mines, however the walls also had bunkers installed in them which would be garrisoned by my Centurions as well as my Assault tanks, once they were built. There was also numerous artillery pieces throughout the line both of the Onager type and the turret variety with a range capable of hitting beyond the outer line ensuring the enemy would be under constant barrage. Despite the inner line having a minefield between layers like the outer line, there were no hidden fusion warheads due it being so close to the CC; instead this line would be dependent on constant reinforcements from dedicated factories which would be constantly spewing out units so long as they had power and raw mass to construct them.

With these defenses in place I felt confident that any attacking race from the Starcraft universe would be unable to defeat me in an open siege without resorting to mass orbital nuclear carpet-bombing or months of attacking with large well-armed and well supported armies.

-OoO-

Three weeks, that's how long it's been since me and Alice arrived on this barren planet and started searching for signs of habitation, the only reason I still had any optimism that we would find any were various signs of past mining operations scattered about in random locations. Entire mineral deposits mined dry by obvious human machinery, though evidence suggested that these areas had been cleared for some time, the mines had been getting steadily newer the further away the scouters explored.

It was partially into the third week when they found them, a mobile mining operation consisting of a Command center, Vespene Refinery, and other specially dedicated mining buildings along with SCVs and MULES in their dozens. The mining group was also protected by a small barracks which housed about fifty or so Marines along with several Marauders. The entire thing was run fairly smoothly; the SCVs and MULES would collect the minerals and Vespene gas canisters, deliver them to predetermined structures, and then every so often a small convoy of transport vehicles would set out towards an as of yet undefined location, though I personally hoped that it was a settlement.

The discovery of this mining operation seemed to be some sort of unseen trigger as shortly after the scouters located several other similar operations; about a dozen in total all mobile and all garrisoned alike. Shortly following these discoveries Alice managed to find this planet's settlement through the simple act of trailing the transport convoys. When the settlement was found the answer to why it wasn't located sooner became apparent, it was nestled cozily in a nook in a mountain range; once found over eighty percent of the scouters were redirected to the respectable sized colony to begin analyzing it.

"So Alice, what have you learned so far?" For the past couple of days Alice had been collecting data on the colony via probes and had finally compiled enough info to give me a meaningful report.

"Well master, as you may have guessed this is a simple mining and manufacturing colony, specifically for the Dominion and its military and fleet. It has a modest population of about twenty-five thousand civilians and a garrison of nearly five thousand not counting the forces protecting the mining operations." To augment her report various images appeared on the view screens in the CC and showed a bustling community and well established industry tooled for war. The images then changed to show what were clearly military structures; barracks, factories, armories, and tech labs dotted an obvious military installation, there was also a small air field housing what few Terran air assets this settlement had, mainly medivacs and Vikings.

"That's quite the garrison for a mining colony, what about stellar units?" Alice smiled and a new set of images appeared, these displaying five separate starports, all of which were ground based. It was once again interesting to see the difference between games and reality.

"I was just getting to those master; there are five different starports, though technically you could think of at least one of them as a dry-dock or shipyard as one of them is currently building one of their battlecruisers." It was true, one of the 'ports currently held a partially finished Terran battlecruiser, a Gorgon-Class if the size was any indication, while two other starports each had a pair of completed Minotaur-Classes. The final pair of 'ports seemed to be for civilian use with one being used for loading cargo and transport ships with raw material and/or equipment for shipping, and the last 'port appeared to be empty as there was little to no activity suggesting that it was to be used for either planetary visitors or for building more space units.

"Have you found out anything about current events?"

"Yes master, by hacking the colonies communications satellites I have been able to glean information that reveals that the three-way war between the Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg is currently in full swing, in fact this particular world is at high risk for a Zerg invasion and as such is on high alert." Well, that would explain the above average garrison for a settlement this size.

"Well that's a handy piece of information; you said you hacked their comms?"

"Yes master, I have full control of all Terran satellites orbiting this world giving me total control of their communication capability." She stated all this fairly proudly.

"Well done Alice, now we've just got to figure out how to make this attack work." She smiled contently at my praise.

With all this information I contemplated as to how I was going to acquire what I wanted from the Terrans; there were several issues, first was distance, while essentially a good thing as it ensured no one would accidently stumble across my base it proved to be a double edged sword as now any attack force I sent had to be teleported unless I wanted to wait days for it to travel to the other side of the planet. Next were the battlecruisers, while they were grounded now they could easily be launched to provide effective fire support against any force I sent which included nuclear bombardment, which would be a problem mainly for the fact that I needed their buildings intact. Finally, and most irritably was the actual garrison itself, or more precisely the Marines and incidentally the Marauders; normally I would use slayers for eliminating a base garrison, however because of the fully and _heavily_ armored Terran infantry that strategy is rendered ineffective since the slayers single shot laser is not powerful enough to penetrate Terran power-armor, much less Marauder armor.

Now, even though I may gripe about these issues, they are in the end not all that dooming if one stops to examine them. Mass strategic teleport of units could easily render distance moot, though it would require a lot of preemptive planning and setup beforehand. The battlecruisers could be dealt with by a careful application of K-bombs. As for the Marines, well my Centurions are also heavily armored and a lot more disposable in the long run. Overall, this whole task will just require a lot of preparation but the actual process won't be that difficult, ever since my bases defensive lines were completed my factories have been producing a constant stream of units and I currently have a fairly good sized army on standby.

Eventually me and Alice were able to hash out a fairly solid plan of attack; first she would use the scouters to positon several dozen beacons in strategically located areas, then Intel probes, slayers, and K-bombs would preposition themselves for their usual roles, and finally when all was ready the attack would commence. This time the objective was not 'take and hold', but rather 'take and stall'; once several of their buildings were captured my mechanical army just had to hold out until Alice could download the desired information and then teleport back to base, I would like to 'take and hold' this base, but with a small city literally right next to it, it just wasn't wise to do so, so snatch and grab.

Hours later everything was in place and as the planets sun set over the colony I gave Alice the order.

"Alice, commence the attack." For a brief moment a savage grin appeared on her holograms face before it vanished back to its original cool and collected state as she acknowledged me.

"Understood master, beginning assault."

-OoO-

Lance Corporal John Shepard of the Terran Marine's 7th Hadrian Battalion, Bravo sub-base, 2nd Company stationed on planet Hadrian in the planetary capitol and so far only settlement New Atlanta was currently on security patrol with the rest of his company, thanks to the current state of war and the colony's own heightened state of alert there were constant patrols and at any one time half of the garrison was in armor and ready for combat. The base which held the garrison was centered on the starports and the actual garrison forces were divided up into six of what could be described as sub-bases all of which included barracks, armories, a tech lab, and one or more vehicle bays/factories. Shepard's sub-base was located next to one of the starports with one of the pairs of Minotaur-Class battlecruisers and was on the far side of the base as a whole from the colony making it a bit over a kilometer from the settlement. With two barracks, an armory, and a factory it was one of the smaller sub-bases but it had a great view of the cityscape which Shepard often admired when no one was watching.

"Hey Shepard, you gonna go with us out drinken after our shift is over?" It was Corporal Evans who asked that, he was one of those guys who loved drinking almost as much as he loved women and he liked to get as many of his friends as possible as drunk as he'd get. As to the mention of shifts, with two barracks it meant there were two companies and they had divided patrol time in to alternating eight hour shifts, one on, one off.

"I dunno Evans, you gonna be there for more than an hour before they toss your drunk ass out?" That got most of his squad chuckling, Evans loved to drink.

"HA! I might, if only so I could finally see you locate you balls and ask out that waitress you've been crush'en on like a high school cherry." That got even more laughs; Shepard had been flirting with one of the bar's waitresses, a cute brunette named Ashley. She seemed to like him but he had yet to work up the nerve to ask her out, Evans and the rest had thought it was because he, as they put it 'lacked a pair', but the truth was his last relationship had ended in disaster and he was just hesitant to start a new one, no matter how pleasant she seemed.

He shrugged and was about to answer when he was interrupted by a very loud…

"HEY! You fucktards had better shut the fuck-up and focus on your jobs before I SHOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOUR WEAPONS UP YOUR RESPECTIVE ASSES!" That was lieutenant McMahon the highest ranking officer that went on patrols with their company; he was a no-nonsense kind of guy with what has become a legendary temper which would flair up at the drop of a hat to no one's benefit, what made his temper legendary was that despite the outlandish threats he can make, he would sometimes carry through with them, needless to say, the rumors were gruesome.

"SIR YES SIR!" The reply came from the entire company even though only a hand full of individuals were being addressed. The Lt just nodded seemingly satisfied if only a bit.

"Damn right 'yes sir', if I catch anyone else going on like schoolgirls again I swear to god that…" He was cut off by a loud explosion. "WHAT THE FUCK!?"

He and everyone else in the company turned their attention to the starport just in time to see several more explosions all erupting from the backend of the battlecruisers as the engine ports were all consumed effectively making any attempt at flying now impossible without weeks or even months of repairs. Behind the starport more explosions could be seen as bright flashes signaling the destruction of the base's airfield where the entire garrison's Vikings and medivacs were located. A quick look at the other starports reviled that similar explosions had occurred; crippling any airpower the garrison could possibly bring to bear. Seeing all this, the lieutenant turned to start giving out orders.

"Shit, the starports are under attack, everyone double-time it over to…" His sentence trailed off as a flash of light in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He whirled around to see a large and armored form standing there. "The hell…!?" Suddenly more armored forms appeared, this time he saw that they came from a flash of oddly colored lightning or possibly static; first it was one, then three, then five, until they were appearing over half a dozen at a time all over the place, hundreds were in view though only a couple dozen were nearby and the rest were headed off to who-knows-where.

At some unseen signal the first unknown raised its arm and pointed it at the Lt and he noticed several barrels attached to its forearms, his eyes widened as he realized what they were, but before he could give the order to take cover the underslung barrel flashed as it fired what was clearly a grenade launcher, the grenade hit the Lt's head with such force that even if his face plate was down it still wouldn't have helped, the force of the blast caused his body to flip end over end and land on his back headless with a resounding 'thud'.

Shepard watched in horror as the armored thing in front of him blew his lieutenants head off, with a shout he raised his gauss rifle, flipped it to full auto, and opened fire spraying the assailant with neo-steel rounds even as the armored foe reoriented its arm to shot another of Shepard's fellow Marines. He noticed that as the first rounds hit they were blocked by what he could only guess was an energy shield of some kind, but luckily it seemed that it could only stop about six or eight rounds before it failed and then the rest impacted his targets armored form. Despite rapid and repeated hits the things angled armor was able to defect glancing hits making only direct hits worthwhile, though they only seemed to dent the armor but it did cause the unknown to stumble somewhat forcing it to stabilize its footing giving Shepard precious seconds to aim at the things head which seemed to be much more effective.

Around him the rest of the Marines as well as the rest of the nonentities had opened fire just seconds after Shepard did; gauss rounds, lasers, and the occasional grenade were exchanged and Shepard finally put down his first target and then switched to another. The firefight only lasted mere minutes before the last enemy fell, dozens of holes in it were the gauss rounds had overwhelmed and penetrated the incredibly tough armor. As his battle-high subsided he look back at the rest of the company and saw that there were just over a hundred of his fellow Marines left, since a company had roughly three hundred that meant that less than half remained. He look toward were the enemy laid and counted no more than three dozen, he felt a sinking feeling within himself as he thought; _'three hundred to beat three dozen, and still we suffered over fifty percent casualties'_. He walked over to inspect his fallen foes, turning one of them over he noticed a disturbing fact.

"There machines!"

"What do you mean machines?" Shepard turned to see Evans behind him and showed him the robot he had managed to shoot the head off of to reveal nothing but wires and servos but no blood or anything else organic. "Holy fuck, you mean we lost over half are guys to goddamn robots!?" He was pissed, and judging from the movements of some of the others, so were they.

"Apparently, I mean look at the rest of them, no blood or anything." He gestured to the other dead robots as he spoke. Evans was about to reply again only to be distracted by the familiar stucco of weapons fire as well as distant explosions signifying grenades coming from the direction of their barracks.

"Shit! Shepard we need to get back there most of those guys were probably just suiting-up, they'll be massacred without our help." Shepard just nodded.

"Your right, who's got rank?" Heads just looked around before settling down to look at him.

"You do Shepard, Lt's dead and so are all the squad leaders and you have time in rank." Shepard balked at this and asked in disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me; none of the sergeants are left?" Evans just shook his head. "Fuck! Okay everyone double-time to the barracks, well use the trenches when possible so as to give ourselves as much cover as possible, now move it!" Everyone immediately headed off towards the barracks and when they came to one of the trenches that went in the right direction they hopped in and set off at a full run.

Part of the new combat doctrine adopted in wake of the Zerg invasion was the establishment of trenches, bunkers, and fixed barricades that now dotted the interior of all military bases and installations to insure that Marines always had adequate cover and easily defendable positions when defending against the Zerg swarms. Along the way the half strength Marine company had to leave and reenter the trenches three times, and though the distance to the barracks was relatively short it took them a lot longer to get there because they encountered two smaller groups of robots that they guessed were the machines squad equivalent and despite there being a dozen in each squad, they were dealt with fairly quickly and with only a few casualties on the Terran's side thanks to Shepard's orders to use plenty of cover as well as to focus fire on the machines heads which apparently killed them as easily as anything else shot in the head.

When they finally arrived at the barracks they discovered it under siege by nearly a hundred of the robots, and on the ground they saw the bodies of over a hundred Marines most unarmored though a few were, there was also several downed robots but that number was depressingly low compared to the number of Terrans. The rest of the machines were exchanging fire from the barracks as surviving Marines fired from its relative safety. Seeing this Shepard had his forces take positions in the nearby trenches and behind any available barricades then when everyone was ready they opened fire on the exposed robots.

The combined fire from both the Marines inside the barracks and the one in the trenches caught the robots in a deadly crossfire, when paired with the head shot strategy; it quickly took down the enemy forces. Despite the quick battle Shepard's forces still took losses mainly due to the machines own deadly accuracy, especially with their grenade launchers. After taking account of his losses he approached the shot-up barracks and called out.

"This it Lance Corporal Shepard of 2nd Company!" The doors open and one of the armored Marines came out.

"Corporal Shepard, Sergeant Goldsworthy, I'm glad you guys made it… or, at least some of you. These bastards appeared right as we were getting ready for our shift, took out our Lt and the Commander as well as most of the company." It was obvious he was angry and quite frankly, Shepard was too.

"Yeah, they literally teleported in right after the airfield and battlecruisers were hit, took out our Lt first and then most of our company in the brief firefight that followed. If you haven't noticed, these things are machines and are damned tough too. You guys managed to get any word from any of the other sub-bases?" The anger in the Sergeants eyes flared briefly at the knowledge that the enemy was robots before it went back down to just barely controlled levels and he nodded at Shepard's question.

"We've been getting intermittent communications that suggest that Alpha, Charlie, and Foxtrot bases have been taken out while Delta and Echo are under siege."

Shepard nodded at the info; it made sense that Delta and Echo were still around as Delta had five companies as well as several squads of Marauders and Echo was essentially a mechanized unit since they were the only ones with Siege Tanks as the other sub-bases only had Hellions, and those wouldn't be much help against the machines. The loss of the other three bases hurt but the loss of Alpha hurt the most as they had a pair of Thors which would be sorely missed.

"Sergeant, I suggest that after the rest of you guys armor-up that we should head on over and help out Echo, their Siege Tanks would be a great help against the robots." The Sergeant shook his head at this.

"While normally I would agree with you when last we heard the enemy was using tanks to counter Echo's tanks, like the robots they're tough bastards and take several hits from the Siege Tanks in siege mode to takeout." Shepard was taken aback by this.

"Tanks!? The machines have tanks? Fuck! Well we can't go for Delta they're on the other side of the base and there are less than three hundred of us, we'd never make it." Shepard was at a loss, he didn't know what to do, going to Echo was their best bet because it was the only sub-base that was close enough that they had a chance to reach, but they would be no help against robotic tanks, hell they could barely beat the robotic infantry.

"I know how you feel Shepard; I'm at a loss at what to do too, if only…" He was cut off by a shout from the inside of the barracks; one of the armored Marines came running out.

"Sergeant, I just got a message from Delta, they have broken their siege!" A cheer rose up at the announcement, now they had hope. "There is another thing Sarge, their commander is still alive and had ordered us to take who ever we have left and head for Echo, apparently they have heard about the situation over there and are going to help break the siege happening there and they want us to help too." Shepard was all too happy to agree.

"I think this is a great idea, Deltas Marauders would be a great help against those robo-tanks."

"I agree too Shepard, once the rest of my boys are suited-up we'll head on out."

Getting the rest of the Marines into their armor was a quick affair and soon the remains of sub-base Bravo were formed up and on the move; a grand total of two-hundred eighty-eight Marines, less than half their original number. The trip there went fairly quick despite the fact they chose to stick to the trenches as often as possible, in fact it saved a lot of lives since they had to fight four machine squads along the way, they lost thirty-two men but it was far fewer than what it could have been. When they arrived they saw that Delta had already gotten there before them and was already contributing greatly to the mayhem, they also saw just how badly the situation had been for Echo; several dozen robo-tanks and what must have been near a thousand robotic troops were locked in a chaotic battle against Echo and now Delta, Siege Tanks and robotic tanks exchanged fire with each other and here and there the destroyed remnants of both littered the ground, though there was a dishearteningly larger number of Terran tanks than machine tanks. Delta's numbers and Marauders seemed to help ease the strain on Echo's forces but it was still going to be a close fight.

When Shepard's group arrived, he and the Sergeant quickly had their men take up positions in the nearby trenches and bunkers that were furthest from the enemy tanks and then start firing on the robot infantry catching them in a cross-fire similar to what happened when Shepard arrived back at his sub-base's barracks. It took nearly a half hour of continuous fighting before the last of the machines fell, but under the onslaught of the Terran Marines, Marauders, and tanks in as well as in a cross-fire, even the tough robots couldn't take all that. It had been costly though, numerous Siege Tanks and Marauders lay in wreaks and hundreds of Marines were dead, including near seventy from Shepard sub-base, sergeant Goldsworthy also lay dead from an enemy gauss round to the head.

After the battle, the respective leaders from the sub-base met to discuss a defense strategy, since for some reason off world communications were down and all space worthy craft were disabled they needed to fortify their position until friendly forces got curious and decided to investigate their silence. Their forces were few; Shepard had the fewest at just under two-hundred, Delta's commander had about eight hundred men left, and Echo's commander had surprisingly the most at nearly a thousand since most of their casualties were from their tanks. The overall plan was simple; the Marines would place themselves in the trenches, bunkers, and behind barricades like usual while the Siege Tanks would deploy themselves to act as artillery as the also usually do, and lastly the Marauders would interspace themselves amongst the Marines. In truth they had little in the way of possible strategy, they were facing machines who basically appeared from nowhere and managed to cut off communications, reinforcements, and escape, the only thing the Terrans could do now was dig in and try to survive.

Not even an hour later the machines returned, and this time in greater numbers than before; they moved forward at a calm and stead pace, the kind that only machines could do, and the kind that really shook the nerves of anyone forced to be in front of it. Shepard was in a trench next to Evans waiting for them to come within firing range and spoke to him.

"So Evans, you ready for this?" Evans just looked at him and laughed.

"Oh yeah I'm ready, after all I got a bottle of tequila with my name on it, but what about you, remember you got a possible future date with a cute waitress. What was her name again?" Shepard managed some kind of chuckle sigh as he answered.

"Her name's Ashley." Evans smirked but couldn't reply any further as the Siege Tanks open fire.

The rounds from the Siege Tanks impacted the front ranks of the robotic forces which were themselves mainly tanks and though the damage was light at first, slowly they were worn down, not only that but any robot infantry that were in the blast radius were flung in back, some didn't get back up either. But eventually the enemy tanks got within range of their cannons and returned fire blowing large chucks of what was barricade or bunker and every so often bits of Marine. Soon then after the Marauders too began firing and combined with the Siege Tanks bombardment managed to start downing opposing tanks. For several minutes this exchange took place and then the enemy infantry started firing and then receiving fire from the Marines; precision fire from both sides started to take its toll as Terran and machine started dying in droves from head shots or explosions, then the first Siege Tank died.

That first tank blowing up seemed to start a chain reaction as soon another when up, then another and another, the frequency of Marines getting blasted also increased and despite the machine tanks be taken out a an even quicker rate, there were more of them, plus they were close enough for them to use their gatling lasers to start racking the trench line adding more Terran deaths. Shepard was starting to think that this was the end when one of the enemy tanks was suddenly struck by multiple hits and blew up in flames, then the one next to it met a similar fate; a cheer rose up a he look to his right and saw a Thor lumber into view as it fired off more rounds from its strike cannons destroying another enemy tank and even some infantry unlucky enough to be in the blast range.

"Holy shit they had a Thor, I thought they were all with Alpha?" Evans was laughing his ass off at the site of it.

"It must have been here for maintenance."

The arrival of the Thor seemed to be the tipping point for the battle as with it, the Siege Tanks, and the Marauders combined firepower the machine tanks were destroyed in due time with only moderate loss to the Terran's side. All that was left was to blow the hell out of the enemy infantry and they'd be done.

"Well Shepard it looks like we win this one eh?" Evans should really have kept his mouth shut for as soon as he said that they both saw the familiar light show signaling more machines teleporting in.

What appeared gave pause to every Terran who saw it; it was basically an enormous version of the machines infantry unit, except it had four legs, a large should mounted cannon, and the entirety of both its hands and forearms were dual-barreled cannons. Six of these machines appeared right behind the enemy infantry line; they all advanced a few steps before firing a volley in unison from their shoulder cannons, six rounds all flew toward the Terran line and six Siege Tanks violently exploded. In response the Thor fired everything it had at one of them, only to have its weapons fire essentially negated by its surprisingly powerful shield; the quad-walkers fired another volley only this time three rounds hit the Thor and annihilated it while two of the remaining round each hit a tank and the last shot left a large crater in the trench were a Marauder used to be.

The death of the Thor and the destruction of most of their tanks so quickly shattered the moral of the Terrans but they kept firing seeing little choice as the four-legged monsters got closer they then raised and fired their arm cannons; plasma rounds raked along the trench line racking up a horrific death toll as each ball of plasma was pure overkill for infantry, even power armored ones such as Terran Marines, a direct hit left nothing but a cooling crater with what might have been a Marine, a glancing hit took an arm or leg and sometimes more, Marauders that were hit didn't fare any better and were like wise killed.

Shepard managed to see the incoming volley of plasma and ducked down into the trench, however when he looked up he saw that Evans didn't duck in time and everything chest height and up was gone. Shepard looked up and down the trench and noticed nearly everyone was dead or dying, all the Marauders were gone, another barrage from the walkers followed by explosions behind him signal the deaths of the last four Siege Tanks as well as two bunkers. He then noticed surviving Marines fleeing the trenches and after assessing the situation decided that was the best course of action, with their numbers decimated and the remains of the enemy infantry advancing on them along with those four-legged walkers, staying in the trenches was now suicide, along with he mused anywhere else at this point.

He started running towards the barracks hoping that he could survive in there when he was suddenly blown forward from explosion caused by the latest barrage from the quad-walkers. The blast must have knocked the wind from him as he found it hard to breathe, he also couldn't move his legs, a quick look determined they were still there but he couldn't move them, also he still couldn't breathe well and his vision was starting to darken. Flipping himself over to lay against one of the barricades he finally noticed it, a metal bar was sticking threw his chest, it severed his spine which paralyzed his legs, it also ruined one lung and damaged the other, he was also losing blood fast. His vison was fading quicker as he struggled for breathe, Shepard knew he was done, as the last of his vision went black he wished he could have asked out Ashley…

… and then he knew no more.

-OoO-

I watched with detached interest as the last of the Terran resistance crumbled almost instantly against my newest unit the Siege Assault Bot; this unit was basically a super-sized Centurion with four legs a shield generator and armed with dual-barreled plasma cannons instead of hands and on their right shoulder was a heavy rail-cannon which fired armor piercing explosive rounds designed by Alice. I didn't bother coming up with a nick name for it since I don't plan on using it too often. One other thing of note about this unit was that its shield generator was actually fairly powerful compared to other shielded units, mainly due to its size which allowed it to possess an adequate power generator.

"Those Terrans managed to be a bigger challenge than I thought they would." I commented to Alice.

"Indeed master, they required much more force to defeat then was predicted." That was an understatement, this battle ended up costing over three thousand Centurions and nearly two hundred Assault tanks plus it caused me to decide to deploy a new unit to battle.

The overall plan for this venture went more or less as it should of; the air field and battlecruisers were all hit by K-bombs eliminating the threat of Terran airpower, after that prepositioned slayers began their assault on the starport workers and the battlecruiser's crew while Intel probes did their part of infiltrating computer banks and other systems allowing Alice to acquire the designs for not only the Terran air units and battlecruisers but also their FTL drives. While all that was taking place Centurions began teleporting in around the base at locations with troop concentrations and started attacking them which for the most part was a total success aside from one group which managed to fight them off. Half of the sub-bases were secured fairly easily with the others being besieged.

The secured sub-bases allowed Alice to use Intel probes to collect data on most of the Terran's ground units, the only unit she was unable to get designs for were their 'ghosts' because there was no academy present at the base. Aside from that Alice was able to compile schematics for everything in the Terran arsenal.

Even though two of the three besieged sub-bases were able to break their sieges and then send their forces to break the siege of the final sub-base it actually gave me a decent test bed to let me see how well the Terran's military stacked up against my forces, even though I didn't deploy everything I had in my arsenal nor did I even have my units perform at their best since I had the Centurions hold back on their speed and maneuverability and the assault tanks to not use their mortar launchers, it was still a good way to measure how well the Terran units might work when merged with my technology; suffice to say I am very excited to start experimenting with what Alice was able to get.

The first thing I wanted to do was to design and build my own warship, after Alice had familiarized herself with the acquired systems from the Terran battlecruisers to integrate and upgrade it with our own tech we both got to work creating plans for a vessel that was going to be my flagship, as least temporary until I can get even better tech and a more established industrial base, preferably the one that my future empire will have.

It took three days to finalize the design but the end result resembled a heavily modified Gorgon-Class battlecruiser; Alice had made massive improvements to the various systems used by the Terrans and so everything from the fusion reactors to the life-support systems were made better. Possibly the biggest internal difference was an area designated for my CC to teleport to and fully interface with the ship; this along with other additions and changes caused an increase in the ships size to a length of approximately 1.9km, making it easily the biggest human made ship in the Koprulu sector. Another big difference was what the ship was going to be made of; Alice had devised an alloy inspired by neo-steel, which I had dubbed 'Alicium' much to her amusement. This new metal was made to be just as lightweight as neo-steel is while having an extreme thermal tolerance so as to be fairly resistant to plasma based weaponry and to have a high resistance to kinetic impacts by being designed to dent or pit when hit by kinetic weapons instead of shattering, meaning that this metal wasn't made to be super hard like diamonds but instead be elastic and tough. The final and most important feature of Alicium is that it's very easy for Alice to synthesize with the proto-crafters.

I ended up designating the vessel the Nova-Class battlecruiser, and keeping with the tradition of classifying ships by the name of the first ship in its class, my flagship was named '_Nova_'.

"Wow, this is going to be a very nice ship." The screens in front of me depicted the _Nova's_ schematics and I was quite excited no know that I will be flying around in it.

"Quite so master, shall I begin construction?" Alice too looked fairly pleased at the final product displayed.

"Have at it and keep me appraised on its progress." She nodded and got to work.

I in the meantime checked on the colony of New Atlanta; I had Alice give them back planetary communications and they seemed to use it to recall all of the mining operations and their garrisons, apparently they feared a return of my forces. In truth though I had no more interest in the inhabitants of this world, but I will still keep an eye on them if only to insure that they don't accidently find my base, even though they were on the other side of the planet it still pays to be cautious. I smirked as I watched them scurry about in a pointless effort to prepare for an attack that would never come, even if they found me it wouldn't matter, after all I essentially had everything they had, as well as even better versions, and soon I will have the beginnings of a fleet and soon… all of the preparations I have been making will be complete… oh so very soon.

Two Months Later…

Construction on the _Nova_ progressed smoothly and steadily, though only this past month had actually been spent working on it. That's because for the first month Alice had been forced to build a subterranean shipyard as well as construct a veritable army of HEBs in order to even begin production. Luckily, once the shipyard was finished construction took right off and didn't slow down one bit, and now the _Nova_ was nearing completion; that of course is when things started happening.

"Master, I am detecting Zerg entering planetary orbit." One of the things that Alice ended up doing was to make several spy-satellites to keep an eye on the planets colony without having to rely on scouters, in hindsight it was a good idea. About half a month ago the Dominion finally sent an investigation force to find out what happened to New Atlanta, five battlecruisers and three thousand Marines showed up expecting to find a destroyed colony only to find it intact with only its garrison wiped-out and its communications severed and no evidence as to who did it since Alice had removed all traces of our involvement, which was fairly easy since nobody outside the base saw who attacked them and none of them survived.

Without an enemy to fight the Dominion simply rebuilt and re-garrisoned the base and the battlecruisers returned home, which now it seemed was a mistake seeing as now the Zerg are here. The images from the spy-satellites showed the massive form of a Zerg Leviathan as it moved into low orbit above the colony. Once it reached a certain altitude it suddenly started releasing hundreds of their Sac drop-pods all around and inside the city and soon thousands of Zerg creatures were fighting and killing Terrans both Marine and civilian alike.

"Damn, I suddenly feel sort of bad for destroying the garrison." Even though a replacement garrison had been brought it was smaller than the previous one, plus it didn't have any of their heavier armored units such as the Thors.

"It couldn't be helped master, after all, the garrison needed to be dealt with in order to acquire the information we needed." It was true, but I still felt a little bad for them.

Over the next few days the Zerg proceeded to overwhelm and slaughter the denizens of New Atlanta. But then something interesting happened; after the colony had been wiped-out the Zerg swarms and Leviathan began moving, specifically towards the direction of my base.

"Alice, why does it look like the Zerg are heading here?" Her hologram looked at me a bit worriedly.

"Because I believe that they are master."

"But we are supposed to be cloaked."

"We are master; however it does not appear to be effective against the Zerg." Well, that's distressing.

"How long until they arrive?"

"Well master, taking in to account for their current speed and the terrain they need to traverse… approximately three days and seventeen hours, assuming they do not make any stops or deviate from a direct route."

"What about the _Nova_, will it be finished in time for us to leave before they arrive?" She slowly shook her head.

"Unfortunately not master, the _Nova_ still requires roughly eight days to complete."

"Damn, well see what you can do to shorten that time period, in the meantime we had best prepare the arrival of the swarm."

It ended up being five days before the attack came as the Zerg had stopped a few kilometers short of the mountain range that was one of the valley walls were my base was situated and proceeded to build a very large hive and started mass producing units by the thousands. The Leviathan however did not stop at first, it seemed to want to fly over the mountains along with a few thousand Mutalisks; it might have worked if not for all the defenses that had been built into the mountain range. As the Leviathan approached it came under heavy assault by the high powered laser and plasma cannons which quickly revealed themselves and opened fire blasting painful rends and holes into the large creature which roared in agony; while at the same time the Mutalisks were shredded by the much more numerous anti-air emplacements. Under such punishing firepower the massive creature soon decided to turn back, the Mutalisks however didn't and were eventually wiped-out.

That first attack had proved the effectiveness of my defenses as well as technology which was far more capable then what the Zerg were used to, and as if to emphasize this when the Zerg finally launched their next attack they divided their swarm and went around the mountain range to approach from both of the valley entrances, too bad for them that those approaches were technically even more fortified then the valley walls were. The swarm advanced quick and just as quickly came under fire from the first layer of the outer defense line; laser, plasma, gauss, mortar, and artillery fire slammed into Zerglings, Hydralisks, Roaches, Banelings, Lurkers, Impalers, Ultralisks, and even Brutalisks killing them in their thousands, yet even as they fell thousands more took their place as they tried to overwhelm the line.

For more than a day the endless sea of creatures attacked, and eventually the front most layer was finally reach, however it was first reached by their air units which came in a vast cloud that were simply too many for the comparatively fewer number anti-air defenses and they were the ones to destroy the first turrets that finally allowed the Zerg ground forces to hit the defense layer. This strategy was quickly exploited by the Zerg and over the course of several hours the outer defense line fell at last. This however meant that as soon as the first Zerg creatures began emerging from the line that the final 'fuck-you' happened and in several bright flashes countless Zerg perished and for a brief few moments the swarm had been pushed back, coincidently this happened at both sides of the valley nearly simultaneously.

The short lull caused by the bombs soon ended as the mass of creatures emerged from the dust cloud caused by the explosions carrying with it an air of anger as if that show of defiance was truly infuriating for them. As they approached, again the aerial creatures came in from above in an attempt to take advantage at the comparatively low number of anti-air defenses, however they instead came under fire from the thousands of Centurions, Assault tanks, and Siege Assault Bots which had been garrisoned in the various bunkers and trenches set up there.

With the air units kept at bay by my actual ground units and the Zerg ground units blocked by the defenses it seemed that the stalemate had reasserted itself, and for nearly two days it had, but eventually some Zerg units managed to get through the wall of fire being thrown at them and as more and more made it through the defense layer was slowly worn away and finally breached allowing the Zerg to move through to the next one, however they instead met my assembled robotic army which had gathered in-between the first and second defense layer as a sort of final stand.

As I watched the Zerg fight against my mechanical army I finally decided that I had seen enough.

"Alright, Alice it's time, teleport the CC to its place in the _Nova_, we're leaving." In actuality the _Nova_ had been completed nearly a day ago, however I was too busy enjoying show happening outside to leave any earlier.

"Very well master." As the Zerg were fighting my slowly dwindling army, the goal of their attack suddenly vanished in a brief storm of weird lightning.

As the teleport completed I immediately got up and exited the CC into a clean and well-lit hallway followed by a hologram of Alice since the entire ship was filled with projectors allowing her to appear anywhere; I was on my way to the ship's bridge which was actually right next to were my CC was placed. As I entered I saw that the bridge was a buzz of activity as dozens of people were busy doing last minute checks and calibrations in preparation for take-off.

"Welcome My Lord." I was greeted by a man in his mid-thirties wearing an officer's uniform. His greeting caught the attention of everyone else on the bridge who turned to look at me, most looked excited as they finally got to see me in person, after all I was their beloved sovereign, their Emperor.

As to where all these people came from as well as the thousands of others on this ship from engineering crews to security personnel and why are they all giddy to see me? Well the answer is simple, they're all clones and they are basically programed to be loyal. From the begin after every successful battle and/or capture of a base in every universe me and Alice have been to include this one, Alice has had the Intel probes after every engagement collect as many DNA samples from as many fallen soldiers and any other killed personnel as possible and then catalog them in a purposely built archive for later use, once the cloning and mind control tech was acquired from that Yuri base in the last universe Alice begun to prepare it for my eventual use, mainly by refining and upgrading it with her more advanced tech base. These people are clones made from using that archive and carefully and precisely programed to be loyal to me, they even know that they are clones; however they don't care and just do whatever job they are made for to the best of their ability while at the same time still possessing the same or at least a similar personality that they had before.

"Greetings Capitan, everyone, I trust that we are ready to get under way?" The Capitan responded proudly.

"Yes Sir, the _Nova_'s Systems are all functioning at 100% and we are just awaiting your final order." I smiled at this and moved to sit in my new command chair/throne with Alice's hologram taking position at my right.

"Well then retract the bay doors and get us airborne, it's time for us to finish up this endeavor." The entire bridge crew responded to my order.

"AYE SIR!"

Outside, the ground under were the CC used to be split apart to reveal the monstrous underground cavern which housed the _Nova_, as the doors finished opening its powerful engines pushed it into the air and high into the sky for the first time allowing the _Nova_ to rise proudly revealing its form to the attacking Zerg.

While based off of the Gorgon-Class, there were clear differences to be seen; aside from its increased size, the _Nova_ also looked far more streamlined and no longer appeared to have been assembled in segments, the front of the vessel no longer had the hammerhead look to it and instead took on the appearance similar to what the Infinity from the Halo series looks like. Likewise, the bridge tower wasn't so pronounced and instead had a more swept back look further adding to the streamed line look. The two engine blocks on the backside took on a role similar to the Stargate series' Daedalus-Class warship by becoming dual level flight bays to be used for either shuttles or fighter craft. Finally to complete everything the ship was covered in a shiny looking dark grey armor placed in a way similar to the Nebula-Class star-destroyer from the Star Wars series, making the ship appear as though it could collapse into a smaller, more compact form.

As the _Nova_ reached a comfortable altitude, it oriented itself and flew towards the Zerg Leviathan and came to a halt several kilometers away from the monstrous beast, the creature then turned to face the new ship and for a moment they seemed to faceoff with each other. The _Nova_ was actually preparing to fire one of its primary weapons; even though two large cannons could be seen attached to the underside of the front of the warship which were actually upgraded Yamato cannons, these were not what was preparing to fire, no, what was readying to fire was the large barreled cannon which ran half the length of the ship, this was a Halo inspired MAC cannon which was currently aimed and the Leviathan's head.

"Sir, MAC cannon ready and target acquired." The Capitan reported. I smiled; I had always wanted to fire one of these.

"Fire!"

The sound was unbelievable as the 10 ton slab of iron and cobalt with a depleted uranium core all wrapped in an ionized plasma field, fired at hypersonic velocities and obliterated the Leviathan's head and easily cored through the rest of the creature and caused a large portion of it to disintegrate from the kinetic force of the round. The shock wave from the cannon actually blasted back the thousands of smaller Zerg air units that had been trying to get through the ship's energy shield. The view of the massive creature falling from the sky to crash onto the hive under it filled me with satisfaction as I gave my next set of orders.

"Capitan, get us into orbit and ready the Yamato cannons for a planetary strike."

"Right away My Lord."

Once we reached high orbit the _Nova_ turned to face were my base used to be and was now swarmed by Zerg. When the cannons were ready they both immediately fired; the area hit was engulfed by the powerful plasma cannons and was quickly glassed, killing everything within a ten kilometer radius. With that done I turned to Alice and had her ready the Quantum Shifter which had been modified to be able to shift something as big as the _Nova_.

"Master, the device is ready, awaiting your order."

"Alright then, go." An 'all hands' announcement informing every one of the impending shift took places before the view screens which showed the surrounding space suddenly lit up with the familiar black and purple lightning.

"Commencing shift." The _Nova_ vanished.

Now then… time for the next phase.

-OoO-

End Chapter

A/N: Well once again a chapter turned out to be far longer than anticipated and wound-up being the longest yet. Hello people, now that the holidays are over I'm back with a new chapter, I know I said a week and it was because of Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't write with Christmas and then New Year's right after, but it's done now and so here it is. I don't know when the next chapter will be out, but if I get some reviews I could be encouraged to get it out faster.

Anyways Please Read & Review

Thank You


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